Punjab farmer leaders released from detention; Pandher condemns police crackdown

Farmer leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher, Abhimanyu Kohar and Kaka Singh Kotra, detained in a recent police crackdown following a meeting with a central delegation, were released on Friday.

Pandher, Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader, was released from Muktsar jail, while Kohar, Kotra and some other farmer leaders were released from Patiala central jail.

In a video message, Pandher condemned the Punjab Police's action against protesting farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points where they had camped for over a year over their demands, the most important of which was a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

In a police crackdown on March 19, several farmer leaders were detained when they were returning from a meeting with a central delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Chandigarh.

The meeting was set up to discuss the farmers' demands, especially the MSP guarantee. As the departing farmers entered Mohali after the meeting, they were met with heavy barricading and some of their leaders were detained.

Police evicted farmers and dismantled temporary structures from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points and vehicular traffic resumed on the Shambhu-Ambala and Sangrur-Jind highways after that.

The protesting farmers slammed the AAP government for detaining their leaders and removing protesters from the border points, where they had been camping since February 13 last year after their march to Delhi was thwarted by security personnel.

With PTI inputs