‘Army-grade’ weapons used against protesting Punjab farmers

Chandigarh, March 2

Claiming police brutality on farmers at Shambu and Khanauri borders, farmer leaders along with the United Sikhs, a civil rights organisation, today said security forces used military-grade weapons while the Punjab Government remained a mute spectator on the high-handedness by the Haryana Government and para-military security forces.

Illegal to erect barricades

It was illegal to erect barricades on the highways leading to New Delhi. It was inhuman, illegal and criminal to drag some of the protesters from Punjab’s territory to Haryana and beat them up mercilessly. — Gurmohan Preet Singh, Farm leader

Addressing a press conference to shed light on the legal aid being extended to farmers who were injured during recent protests, farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa, advocate Gurmohan Preet Singh and Haryana farmer leader Ashok Balhara, said the police acted like the British.

“It was illegal to erect barricades at the highways leading to New Delhi, but it was totally inhuman, illegal and criminal to drag some of the protesters from Punjab territory to Haryana and torture and beat them mercilessly,” said Gurmohan Preet Singh. He said worse was the fact that the medico-legal reports of the injured and the post-mortem reports of the dead were not being shared by the Punjab Government. “We blame both Punjab and Haryana Governments equally,” he added.

Baldev Singh Sirsa shared horrifying details about the condition of Preetpal Singh, a farmer who was picked from the protesters by the Haryana Police, dragged with a rope around his neck, bundled in a sack, forcibly taken across state lines, and beaten mercilessly, causing fractures all over his body, including five on the face.

“We got him shifted to PGIMER, Chandigarh, only after the intervention of the High Court. His condition remains critical.” Sirsa condemned what he described as ‘police brutality’, stating that Preetpal Singh was still unable to speak due to the severity of violence inflicted upon him.

United Sikhs leaders said excessive force was used against peaceful protesters, with military-grade weapons being deployed against unarmed farmers. Gurmohan Preet Singh disclosed that they had filed petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking justice for the victims of police violence.