CHANDIGARH, March 20 (Alliance News): Police in Punjab, India, detained hundreds of farmers and used bulldozers to demolish their camps at a border area where they had been protesting for more than a year, demanding higher crop prices.
The farmers had been camped at the Punjab-Haryana border since last February after security forces blocked their march to New Delhi to demand legally-backed price guarantees for crops.
The eviction took place Wednesday night, with police stating that the farmers did not resist and voluntarily boarded buses.
Among those detained were farmers’ leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who was taken away in an ambulance after being on an indefinite hunger strike. The eviction has drawn criticism from farmer groups, with Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait accusing the government of negotiating on one hand while arresting leaders on the other.
Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) defended the eviction, stating that while they supported the farmers’ demands, blocking highways was damaging the state’s economy. The BJP-led federal government, which repealed controversial farm laws in 2021 after year-long protests, held talks with farmers’ representatives on Wednesday.
However, BJP Punjab Vice President Fatehjung Singh Bajwa claimed the detentions were an attempt to derail the dialogue between farmers and BJP leadership.
