50 farmers, 7 cops injured in clashes near Badal rally
NEW DELHI/MOGA: Moga police on Thursday used batons and a water cannon to disperse a group of protesting farmers who allegedly tried to disrupt a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) rally led by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, people familiar with the development said.
Around 50 farmers and at least seven policemen were injured in the clashes which erupted after protesters allegedly broke barricades to enter the rally venue at the grain market on Moga-Ferozepur road around 1pm, DSP (City) Jashandeep Singh Gill said.
Around 40 farmers were detained and several cases under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, National Highway Act and The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act were registered against unknown persons at City Police Station, Moga, police said. Seventeen named people have also been booked in this regard, they added.
The police action on the cultivators came nearly a week after several protesters were lathicharged while heading towards Karnal to protest against a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meeting. Around 10 farmers were injured in the incident. On Wednesday, the Haryana government transferred Karnal sub-divisional magistrate (SDM-civil) Ayush Sinha, who was caught on camera directing police to hit protesting farmers in Karnal in their heads if they breached the security cordon.
Badal, who began a 100-day “yatra” across 100 assembly constituencies in Punjab ahead of the polls next year, alleged the protesters were “not farmers but owed allegiance to the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party”.
Some of the protesters, police claimed, hurled stones in a bid to force their way inside the venue, prompting security personnel to resort to water cannons and a cane charge on the crowd. More than 10 vehicles were also damaged in the incident.
“The police have repeatedly urged farm unions to exercise their democratic right to protest in a peaceful manner. But the protesting farmers broke the police barricading with tractors, scuffled and pelted stones at cops. The mob also vandalised vehicles of police and the general public. Gurdeep Singh, deputy superintendent of police, Moga, was hit in the head with a stone and presently, he and other six cops are undergoing treatment in the hospital,” Moga senior superintendent of police Dhruman H Nimbale said.
The protesting farmers, however, claimed that they were trying to peacefully enter the rally venue when police used force on them.
“The administration and police department promised a meeting with Badal as we wanted to ask some questions. But they did not organise a meeting for us with him. Upset over this, the farmers were peacefully trying to march towards the rally side when police used water cannons and cane-charged us. At least 10 to 20 famers were received major injuries while over 40 received minor injuries,” Baldev Singh Zira, general secretary of Bharti Kisan Union, Krantikari, said.
Condemning the clashes, SAD leader Bikram Singh Singh Majithia said, “The attempts to disrupt the massive Akali gatherings being organised as part of the party’s ‘Gal Punjab Di’ campaign were part of a deep-rooted conspiracy of the Congress in conjunction with the Centre to disturb the hard-won peace in Punjab and impose president’s rule in the state.”