COP-FARMER CLASH: 80 BOOKED
TARN TARAN: Hours after a clash broke out between the members of a farmer union, Border Area Farmers Welfare Committee (BAFWC), and cops outside the Khemkaran police station in Tarn Taran district on Wednesday, 80 persons, including two women, have been booked for attempt to murder.
Station in-charge inspector Tarsem Masih is the complainant. BAFWC vice-president Surjit Singh Bhura is among those booked. Police claim the protesters attacked them at the police station, despite being assured that action would be taken in their complaint against Congress leader and former president of Khemkaran nagar panchayat, Raj Singh Pattu, for alleged irregularities in Indira Awas Yojana.
Farmers claim they pelted stones only in retaliation after the police resorted to cane charge and firing in the air, despite a peaceful protest. They also alleged the police brutally thrashed farmers and women. Bhura added, “On Wednesday, I and a few other farmers had been protesting at the nagar panchayat office some officers of which are accused of taking bribe in the name of the Indira Awas Yojana. Meanwhile, former nagar panchayat president, Pattu, and his aides reached there and started thrashing us. We went to the police station to lodge a complaint against Pattu, but police took no action.”
Masih, however, claimed, “Bhura had given a complaint against Pattu and others and they blocked the main road outside the police station. When asked to move, they assualted policemen with an intention to kill. They also pelted stones and opened fire, besides uttering abuses. The mob damaged property.”
Sixty accused remain unidentified. A case has been registered under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (assault to deter public servant), 506 (criminal intimidation), 283 (obstruction in public way), 323 (causing hurt), 148 (rioting deadly weapons) of the IPC; Section 25 of Arms Act; and Section 4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.