Farmers try to break barricades in Haryana, police fire tear gas shells

CHANDIGARH: A day before the next round of talks between the protesting farmers and the Centre, a major clash took place on the Delhi-Jaipur highway at Rewari when the Haryana Police tried to stop a group of farmers from marching to Delhi.  

A group of young farmers from Rajasthan and Haryana, who had been camping at the service lane on the highway near Bhudla-Sangwari village in Rewari, were joined by protesters from Tikri border. On Sunday evening, the group removed the police barricades and started moving towards Delhi. On reaching Masani barrage near Dharuhera town, they were stopped by the police.

As the farmers tried to pull down the barricades, the police resorted to lathi-charge and firing tear gas shells and also blocked the service lane to stop the farmers from marching ahead. A tractor-trolley with blankets and quilts stored inside caught fire during the clash but the blaze was doused by the farmers.

Some farmers sitting inside jumped off the trolley to save their lives and also managed to take out an LPG cylinder. In another incident, farmers in Punjab’s Sangrur tried to disrupt sate BJP chief Ashwani Sharma’s meeting with the party’s district president Randeep Deol. A few farmers were injured in thepolice lathi-charge. Meanwhile, four more farmers died on Sunday, two each at Singhu and Tikri borders, due to cardiac arrest.

‘Farm agitation to continue till three Acts are repealed’
Gurugram: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, who reached the protest site in Gurugram on Sunday to support the ongoing agitation, said that the agitation will not end till the government rolls back the new agricultural laws. Tikait alleged that the new farm laws have been made for the benefit of capitalists. He said that till the demands of the farmers are not accepted, the farmers will stay in Delhi and keep protesting against these laws. Soon Rajasthan farmers will also reach the Delhi border, he added. Samyukt Kisan Morcha president Chaudhary Santokh Singh assured that all possible help will be given to the farmers arriving from Rajasthan.