Day after police lathicharge farmers in Karnal, Punjab cultivators burn effigies and block roads

Farmers blocked roads and highways in Punjab for two hours on Sunday to protest the police lathicharge on cultivators in Haryana. Protesters from various farmer bodies also burnt the effigies of the BJP-led government in Haryana. Around 10 people were injured on Saturday as police allegedly lathicharged a group of farmers disrupting traffic movement on a national highway while heading towards Karnal to protest against a BJP meeting. The two-hour agitation in Punjab that started at noon also caused inconvenience to commuters, who were stuck in traffic snarls at several places. The protest caused disruption of vehicular traffic at many places and affected routes along the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway, Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway, Amritsar-Ganganagar highway and Ferozepur-Zira road. Kisan Sangharsh Mazdoor committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher strongly condemned the lathicharge on farmers by the Haryana police. During a protest in Amritsar, Pandher said Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign on moral grounds as he has no right to continue in the post after the police action on farmers. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) staged protests at 56 places in the state and castigated the “shameful” act of the Khattar government. Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu also condemned the Haryana police action on farmers in Karnal. He tweeted :

Deplorable assault on the protesting Farmers is an attack on Fundamental Rights of every Indian … earned after innumerable sacrifices during the freedom struggle, It impinges and impedes on the spirit of the Constitution and Breaks the Backbone of India’s democracy !! pic.twitter.com/7nqmDBx3Dm

— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) August 29, 2021

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had expressed shock on Saturday at the “brazen brutality” of the Haryana police and had slammed Khattar for “unleashing such a vicious assault on the peacefully protesting farmers”, many of whom were injured in the lathicharge. With inputs from PTI