Tarn Taran: Protest over farmer’s death at Khanauri

Tarn Taran, February 22

The killing of a young farmer Shubhkaran Singh (23) was condemned by the farmers who lodged a protest in the district on Thursday. Shubhkaran was killed in the firing of rubber bullets by the Haryana police and paramilitary forces at Khanauri border in Punjab on Wednesday. The protesting farmers burnt the effigies of the Union and Haryana governments on Thursday.

A large number of farmers and labourers including men and women demonstrated on National Highway No. 54 near Rasulpur village and condemned the brutality of the state machinery at the Punjab border against the farmers who were fighting for their genuine demands, to seek legal guarantee on MSP of crops, among others. The road traffic was disturbed as farmers came in the middle of the NH. Baljinder Singh Sheron, Devinder Kaur and Kuljit Kaur were among those who addressed the gathering and called the farmers to unite to press for the acceptance of their demands. The leaders condemned damaging of tractor-trolleys of farmers for no fault of theirs.

The farmers under the banner of BKU (Kadian) blocked road traffic by staging a dharna on the Harike bridge for three hours led by Gursab Singh Dall, district unit president. The flow of traffic remained disrupted on the Amritsar-Bathinda road. Gursab Singh Dall and other leaders, while addressing the gathering, stressed on the acceptance of the demands of agitating farmers. The activists of the farmer organisations associated with the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) staged a dharna in front of the BJP’s district-level office in Tarn Taran town and said that the demands of farmers accepted at the end of the Delhi Morcha two years back should be implemented.

All three plazas situated at Usman, Mannan and Bhagupur were being run toll-free as the farmers have been staging a dharna for the last three days in the district.