19 held from two villages for R-day violence

The villages of Bangi Nihal Singh and Tateria Wala are situated 119km apart, both nestled in the rural heartlands of Punjab’s Bhatinda and Moga districts.

The villages have a combined population of 7,500 people and are both located more than an hour’s drive from the main towns of Bhatinda and Moga.

There is, however, a thread that connects both the hamlets.

BATHINDA/MOGA:

According to the Delhi Police, both Bangi Nihal Singh and Tateria Wala are two villages from where a large group of farmer protesters — who went on a rampage in the afternoon of January 26, often fighting pitched battles with security forces — hailed from.

At least seven men from Bangi Nihal Singh and 12 from Tateria Wala had been arrested for rioting and violence at Nangloi and Paschim Vihar on January 26.

The other 102 men nabbed are from different villages in Punjab,

Haryana and Delhi. Delhi Police have said that the arrested men deviated from the pre-approved route of their tractor rally, attacked police personnel when they were stopped, and indulged in rioting.

“One of my sons is now in Tihar jail. Another is in Srinagar, fighting terrorists for the Indian army. How can we be a family of rioters? We are farmers, who are raising our voices against unjust farm laws,” Sukhjinder Kaur, 53, a resident of Tataria Wala village said.

Sukhjinder’s son, Harjinder, 23, is among the 12 men arrested for the violence in Nangloi.

In Bangi Nihal Singh, seven residents are behind bars, but that has not deterred local residents from coming together to work on sending more men to Delhi’s borders.

“We are not afraid that seven of our men have been arrested. We are pooling in resources to arrange for transport. Our village will be adequately represented in Delhi,” Gurmeet Singh, a resident of the village.