The police on Friday used tear gas shells and water cannons to dispense the agitating farmers at Shambu border near Ambala. Earlier, the farmers from Punjab broke the police barriers at the state border with Haryana as they pushed towards the national capital on their Delhi Chalomarch against the Centre’s farm laws.

By late evening, on Thursday, a large group of them had reached the road toll plaza at Panipat, about 100 km from Delhi. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Haryana) leader Gurnam Singh said the protesters planned to spend the night there and will resume the march the next morning (Friday).

There were traffic snarls during the day at Delhi border with police checking vehicles coming in from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Metro services between Delhi and NCR areas were restricted. Haryana Police chief Manoj Yadava said his force acted with great restraint.

Protesters hurled stones at many places, the DGP said in a statement. In this entire episode, not only a number of police personnel were injured, but police and private vehicles were also damaged. In Karnal, a farmer was injured when a teargas shell hit him. No arrests were reported.

At the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border, police and Punjab farmers in their tractor-trolleys were locked in a confrontation for a couple of hours in the morning. Police made announcements on loudspeakers asking the farmers assembled on the Punjab side to disperse.