New Delhi (Web Desk / Agencies): In India’s northern state of Punjab, police detained hundreds of farmers and demolished their temporary camps using bulldozers in a border area where the farmers had been protesting for more than a year.
According to International media, the farmers had been stationed at the border with Haryana since February of the previous year, after security forces blocked their march toward New Delhi, where they were demanding stronger legal guarantees for better state support for their crops.
"We did not need to use any force because there was no resistance," said Nanak Singh, a senior police officer, speaking to the ANI news agency about the clearance operation that took place on Wednesday night.
"The farmers cooperated well and they sat in buses themselves." According to Singh, the farmers had been informed ahead of time about the eviction.
Footage from television networks showed police using bulldozers to tear down tents and structures while guiding farmers, who were carrying their personal belongings, onto buses.
Reports confirmed that among the detained were key leaders of the farmers' movement, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal.
The latter, who had been on an indefinite hunger strike for several months, was reportedly taken away in an ambulance.
Rakesh Tikait, a spokesperson for the farmer organization Bhartiya Kisan Union, criticized the government's actions, stating on the social media platform X, "On one hand the government is negotiating with the farmer organisations and on the other hand it is arresting them."
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab and authorized the eviction, expressed its ongoing support for the farmers' cause but encouraged them to take their demands to the federal government.
"Let’s work together to safeguard Punjab’s interests," said Tarunpreet Singh Sond, the party's vice president in the state. He also pointed out that the blockade of highways was negatively affecting the state’s economy, adding, "Closing highways is not the solution."
The federal government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had previously repealed controversial farm laws in 2021 after a prolonged protest by farmers, who had camped outside Delhi for several months.
On Wednesday, officials from the federal government met with the farmers' leaders.
Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab, posted on X, stating, "It is clear that this arrest is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the ongoing dialogue between farmers and BJP leadership."
