Stopped from heading towards Ambala, farmers stage dharna on Hisar road

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, July 17

Hundreds of farmers today staged a dharna near Balana village on Ambala-Hisar road after the police stopped them from heading towards Ambala City. They were protesting after some farmer leaders and activists were detained by the Ambala police.

The SKM (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha had given a call to gherao the SP’s office to mark protest against the arrest of farm activist Navdeep Singh. However, after Navdeep was released on bail from the Central jail last night, the farmers had withdrawn their call to gherao the SP’s office, but decided to hold a meeting for honouring Navdeep and carrying out a victory procession from Ambala to the Shambhu border.

However, since prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNS were imposed, several farmer leaders, including BKU (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) president Amarjeet Singh Mohri, Ranjeet Singh Raju, Jaswinder Singh and other activists, who had reached the grain market to see the preparations, were detained by the police.

Irked over the police action, a large number of farmers from Haryana and Punjab led by Sarwan Singh Pandher gathered on the Hisar-Chandigarh highway and started marching towards Ambala to get the detained farmers released.

Meanwhile, a heavy police force was deployed, dumpers were placed, and barricades were installed by the police to stop the farmers, following which the farmers sat on the road. Meanwhile, commuters had a tough time as the traffic was diverted to other routes.

BKU (SBS) spokesman Tejveer Singh said, “The farmer leaders had come to see the preparations but the police had detained them following which we got together other activists and started the march towards Haryana. The BJP is trying to show in the Supreme Court that the farmers have been blocking the roads and creating nuisance while the road has been blocked by the government itself.”

Later, a delegation of farmers held a meeting with Ambala SP Surinder Singh Bhoria and they agreed to take the procession towards the Shambhu border from the Ambala-Hisar road. After the meeting, the detained farmers were released. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said, “Our only programme was to honour Navdeep Singh at the grain market and take out a victory procession towards the Shambhu border. We had no plan to hold protest against the state government. Now we are going to Shambhu with a victory procession from Haryana to honour Navdeep and other farmers there.”

SP Surinder Singh Bhoria said, “The farmers had given the call to assemble at the grain market, but seeing the circumstances, prohibitory orders were imposed in Ambala. They were stopped and discussions were held with them. It was decided that the farmers will not violate the korders and they will go to the Shambhu border as decided in the meeting. The farmers were then released. Ample force was deployed to maintain law and order.”