Farmer leaders put under house arrest day before Shambhu protest
Ahead of the call given by the various farm unions for a sit-in protest outside Shambhu police station on May 6 against the thrashing of farmer leader Balwant Singh Behramke on March 19 after morchas were demolished, the Punjab police put several senior farmer union leaders under house arrest in Ludhiana on Monday.
Dilbagh Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union said today that around 4 am, several cops arrived at his house in Jiwanpur village in Ludhiana and put him under house arrest.
“As per the plans of various farmer unions, he, along with members of his union, had to move towards Shambhu, where a day-long protest was to be organised against the Punjab government on May 6. We had no plans to block roads and only a peaceful protest was to be organised, but the state government could not even digest our peaceful agitation,” added Dilbagh.
He revealed that apart from him, several other farmer leaders, including Gurdeep Singh, Parkash Singh, Gurdeep Singh Bhatti, etc. had been either put under house arrest or detained at police stations. “We have no anger against the police as cops are obeying the orders of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann,” maintained Dilbagh.
He said cops were still present outside his house and they may stay here till tomorrow morning to prevent him from going to Shambhu.
“By resorting to such tactics, Aam Aadmi Party cannot suppress our agitation. It is totally wrong that the government is not even allowing us to hold a peaceful protest. We just had to put up a tent outside the Shambhu police station to hold protest against the state government, police and MLA Ghanaur Gurlal Singh. Goods worth around Rs 8 lakh of the BKU had either gone missing or stolen by miscreants, but Shambhu police station has not taken any action. Even minimal efforts were made by the police to recover our goods, including a tractor-trailer, refrigerator, fans, coolers, etc.” said Dilbagh.
The BKU leader warned that farmers would not step back and would make efforts to reach Shambhu to hold a peaceful agitation.
Malerkotla: A day ahead of the proposed protest by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) activists at the Shambhu police station, the cops remained on their toes for handling any untoward situation. They reportedly detained certain farm leaders to fizzle out the protest.
Though the authorities termed the wee-hour action as a routine proactive measure to maintain law and order, SHOs and beat officers were seen focussing on ‘detaining’ farmer leaders at their houses, besides seting up special nakas at strategic points on highways and link roads of the region.
DSP (Special), Malerkotla, said special nakas had been organised on Ludhiana-Malerkotla, Malerkotla-Khanna, Ahmedgarh-Raikot and Kup-Payal roads as part of ‘routine’ early morning checking on Monday.
Sources further revealed that SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal had been put under ‘house arrest’ at about 4 am on Monday and Dallewal uploaded a video on social media regarding his ‘detention’.
On Saturday, the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (Bharat) and SKM (Non-Political) had announced a protest outside the Shambhu police station on Tuesday, accusing the government of using repressive tactics during the recent farmer agitation and demanding strict action against those responsible for the aggression against protesting farmers.
However, farmer leaders were caught unawares earlier this morning when almost all roads from their residences to the highways were ‘sealed’ by putting up special nakas. Though the authorities did not announce any detention, at least six farmer leaders of the district were reported to be kept in isolation at their residences.
Ludhiana