Two-day dharna near Jakhar’s ancestral house

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Abohar, February 17

On the call of the BKU (Ugrahan), hundreds of farmers and farm workers, including women, protested near BJP state president Sunil Jakhar’s ancestral residence in Panjkosi, 16 km from Abohar, against the ‘atrocities’ on farmers by the Haryana Police near the inter-state borders.

Union’s state secretary Shingara Singh and district president Gurbhej Singh Rohiwala and others said that this two-day dharna would continue on Sunday also. They said that former PCC chief Sunil Jakhar had promised to be farmer friendly, but now farmers were being oppressed by the BJP government and he was nowhere to be seen.

Hundreds of farmers from far-flung villages reached Panjkosi to participate in the dharna staged about 200 m from Jakhar’s house. Heavy police force, including a large number of women cops, had been deployed.

Farmers had started reaching the village in the morning, but had to wait till afternoon for initiating the protest as annual exams of the Punjab School Education Board were going on in the Government Senior Secondary School located on the same street that connects Jakhars’ house to the village periphery.