Talks fail, farmers gherao Karnal sectt
Mobile net, SMS services to remain suspended in district, farmers block highways in Jind
KARNAL/CHANDIGARH: Thousands of farmers surrounded a key government building in Haryana chief minister’s bastion of Karnal on Tuesday evening, holding a massive show of strength and intensifying their protest over controversial police action on agitating cultivators last month.
Farmers gathered at a mahapanchayat venue in Karnal, and later marched on foot to the mini secretariat building five kilometers away. They faced water canons and jumped over some barricades on their way.
Three rounds of talks with the district administration dissuading the farmers from blocking the highway and marching into Karnal town had failed earlier in the day. “Our talks with administration failed as they did not agree to our demands,” senior Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan said. “We have gheraoed the mini-secretariat. We don’t have to enter inside. We will sit outside peacefully,” farm leader Yogendra Yadav said.
This is the second mahapanchayat by farmers, who clashed with the government last year over three controversial central laws, in two days. On Sunday, farmers held a similar mega event in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Karnal is the home constituency of Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, who defended the August 28 police lathi charge that left some farmers injured and allegedly caused the death of one protester – a charge denied by the administration.
The farmers vowed not to lift meeting, decide to lay siege to the mini-secretariat
4pm Protesters start march towards the mini-secretariat
Police try to detain Tikait and Charuni, farmers protest
Farmers cross the main barricade near Nirmal Kutia Chowk, face water cannons when they reach near the mini-secretariat
Farmers start a sit-in at the main entrance of the mini-secretariat
the blockade till the government lodged a case of murder against sub-divisional magistrate Ayush Sinha, who was caught on tape allegedly telling policemen to “break heads” if protesters crossed the line. Singh has since been transferred. The cultivators also demanded ₹25 lakh compensation to the farmer who died on August 28 and ₹2 lakh each to the injured farmers.
Farmers said that they will pitch tents at the entrance of the mini secretariat and that the sit-in protest will be organised on the lines of Singhu and Tikri border sites. For about nine months, farmers from Punjab, Haryana and other north Indian states have been sitting on the borders of the Capital to press for the repeal of the three laws.
As night fell, farmers squatted outside the mini secretariat, shared food and water, and shouted slogans in support of the agitation against the central laws. Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said the state government was not listening to the farmers. “The Khattar government should agree to our demands or else arrest us. We are ready to fill Haryana jails,” he tweeted. The farm unions had