Over 130 have died since Nov 26 during farmers’ agitation: BKU

Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 19

More than 130 farmers from Punjab have lost their lives during the ongoing farmers’ agitation, said Balbir Singh Rajewal, president, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) while talking to The Tribune today.

Rajewal said, “We have asked farm leaders from other states, too, to provide us with the number of farmer deaths in their respective areas along with their names and complete background. We will release this data nationwide to show how the government has turned a blind eye towards the farmers’ woes. The entire world is already watching us,” said Rajewal.

“During a meeting with the central team engaged in discussions with us recently, I gave them the figures of 125 martyrs. There was not even a whimper of acceptance or regret, showing the insensitive behaviour of the officers dealing with the issue. The number of deaths has increased and our team had collected the data of deaths on Delhi borders. We will now be collecting the figure from all districts in our state.”

Assigned the duty of collecting the data from the state, farmer leader Pargat Singh said, “We have the data of about 85 farmers who died on Delhi borders since the first day we came here on November 26 last year. After initiating the exercise of collecting data from across the state, we have got a rough figure of more than 130. We are preparing a detailed list with the help of our workers in different districts.”

“Besides deaths due to suicide, other common reasons for casualties are cold weather, particularly during night, pneumonia and cardiac arrests,” said farm activist Gurdev Singh.