Women join farmers' sit-in at Yamuna Expressway, block it briefly

MATHURA: A large number of women descended upon Yamuna Expressway on Sunday and blocked it near its 62-km milestone to extend support to farmer leaders protesting against the three new farm laws, police said.

The women numbering over a hundred blocked the Expressway briefly in the morning to protest the alleged detention of some agitating farmer leaders, said Mathura's Superintendent of Police (Rural) Srish Chandra Dixit.

They, however, lifted the blockade after being assured that the farmer leaders were not detained but only taken away for talks, he said.

Bhartiya Kisan Kalyan Samiti's national president Ram Babu Katelia, who is holding the sit-in near the Expressway with the farmers of nearby Bajna village, said woman descended upon the highway after learning that he and other leaders were detained at Baldeo police station.

And in his absence, the police tried to evict the demonstrating farmers from the site, he said.

The local farmers have been holding a sit-in for the last 12 days in support of their eight-point demands, including the withdrawal of the three central laws.

Katelia said the police wanted them to lift the sit-in assuring them that their demands of local nature would be accepted by the administration, but they told police that their dharna would continue till the farmers continue their sit-ins at Delhi borders.