Quick, surprise eviction after 399 days
The police today launched an eviction drive at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points, removing protesting farmers and dismantling their temporary structures. The police detained over 300 protesters, including the 28-member delegation consisting of farm leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal. The delegation members were detained minutes after the seventh round of talks with the Central Government panel ended in Chandigarh.
The national highway on the Shambhu border that had been blocked for the past 399 days (since February 13, 2024) for traffic was almost cleared with police personnel dismantling the stage and the tent city. The process of removing tractor-trailers parked at the Khanauri border was also going on when the reports last came in.
While around 200 farmers were detained at Khanauri, more than 100 were apprehended at Shambhu. At both the locations, the police faced mild resistance from protesters.
However, many farmers alleged that they were manhandled while being pushed into the buses due to which their turbans fell.
The Internet along with the electricity supply was suspended around the protest sites.
A massive eviction drive was launched under the supervision of DIG Mandeep Singh Sidhu at the Khanauri border.
Before initiating the drive, the DIG appealed to the farmers to vacate the site following which he sent police personnel to carry out searches and detain any farmer found hiding in tents.
SSP Nanak Singh, two AIGs and an SP supervised the operation at Shambhu.
Besides evicting the farmers, the police used bulldozers to dismantle the tents at both locations.
Sources said the police had received intelligence input that due to the meeting in Chandigarh, the presence of farmers was thin at the protest sites.
The sources said action followed after traders in Ludhiana told AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal that it would be difficult for AAP to get votes in the Ludhiana West Assembly byelection if the farmers’ protest did not end.
A heavy police buildup was witnessed in Sangrur and Patiala also. Reserve police personnel were deployed around the Shambu and Khanauri borders to tackle any eventuality.
The farmers’ protests were centred around demands for a legal guarantee on the Minimum Support Price for crops, among other issues. Over 45 farmers have died and nearly 500 were injured in the year-long protest as both the national highways remained blocked since February 2024, paralysing trade and posing inconvenience to commuters.
The sources said the authorities in Haryana were waiting for a green signal from their counterparts in the state before removing the barricades.
Meanwhile, Dallewal was detained after being picked up from the Zirakpur barrier. Pandher, Kaka Singh Kotra, Manjit Singh Rai, Sukhminder Kaur and Abhimanyu Kohar were apprehended in Mohali.
All leaders have been taken to the Commando Police Training Centre at Bahadurgarh Fort in Patiala. A source said Dallewal was likely to be shifted to a hospital.
The farmers detained from the two protest sites have been taken to various police stations. About 2,000 police personnel were sent from Ladda Kothi, near Sangrur, to clear the protest site at the Khanauri border. It is learnt that the SSPs of several districts, including Sangrur, Barnala and Malerkotla, were deployed to supervise the operation.
In the morning, apprehending police action BKU (Sidhupur) leader Ran Singh Chatha had in a video message appealed to the farmers of Sangrur, Barnala, Patiala, Mansa and Bathinda districts to reach Khanauri and Shambhu in large numbers to prevent the government from crushing the protest.
(With inputs from Sushil Goyal)
