Haryana: Farmers lathicharged in Karnal, prompts over 6-hour blockade

KARNAL: Vehicular traffic on various state and national highways in Haryana came to standstill for over 6-7 hours after farmers were lathi-charged by the police on Saturday afternoon at Karnal’s Bastara toll plaza while trying to march to the venue of BJP state-level meeting headed by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
The state-level meeting to discuss strategy to be adopted for yet-to-be-announced elections to Panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies in Haryana was attended by the chief minister, state BJP president OP Dhankhar, ministers Kanwar Pal Gujjar, Mool Chand Sharma, Kamlesh Dhanda, Sandeep Singh, MPs Sanjay Bhatia, Nayab Singh Saini, and Arvind Sharma, and MLAs from Karnal, Panipat, Hisar, and Fatehabad districts. The area around the venue had been put under virtual siege by the police as no movement was allowed during the meeting.
Thousands of farmers, carrying black and BKU flags, gathered at Bastara toll plaza from Saturday morning after a call was given to protest and show black flags to the state BJP leaders.

The protesters had earlier announced that they would assemble at Dera Kar Seva in Karnal city, but the district administration had installed barricades at many places to stop all movement of farmers.
When the protesters at noon tried to head towards Karnal city from the toll plaza, they were stopped by the police. However, the farmers were adamant on moving towards Karnal and tried to block the National Highway 44, thereafter police used lathi charge to disperse them.
There has been no independent verification of the number of farmers injured in the police action, with farm groups estimating around 10 farmers had been injured and the Haryana police putting the number at four. Haryana ADGP (law and order) Navdeep Singh Virk said 10 cops had been injured in the incident. The police have detained several protesters, including BKU (Charuni) district president Jagdeep Singh Aulakh. Karnal IG Mamta Singh, deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, SP Ganga Ram Punia, and other senior officials along with heavy police force were present during the action on the farmers.
CM, police say farmers started it CM Khattar defended police action and said it is not legitimate to block highways. Treading cautiously, he blamed the farmers for blocking the highway and pelting stones on cops who cautioned them against it.
“It was a state-level meeting of BJP and they had given a call to oppose this which I condemn. Whatever the reason, obstructing the functioning of an organisation is an attack on democracy. At one point in time, the farmers had an understanding that they would conduct peaceful agitation,” he said. “Nobody should create a disturbance in the programme of anyone. They should protest peacefully. If they pelted police with stones and blocked roads, It is the duty of the police to maintain law and order.”
Taking a conciliatory route, the chief minister said: “We shall talk this out with both sides. We shall act against cops if they are found to be high handed and certainly, action will be taken against the farmers in case they are found to be wrongdoers.”
Dhankar also expressed concern over the incident. “We have requested the CM to get the circumstances probed in which police had resorted to the use of force. We are sure that it would be an impartial probe,” he said.
ADGP law and order Navdeep Virk, in a video message from police HQ in Panchkula, said the cops had used ‘mild’ force against the protesters to bring law and order under control. He said the farmers had violated their own agreement with police that they had agreed to after the Tohana incident in June this year.
“In June this year at Tohana, the farm leaders had given an undertaking that they would refrain from violent protests. But, in this case, they had been insisting on moving towards Karnal city where the program was to be held. Our officers had stopped them but some of them had resorted to pelting stones and attacked the policemen,” said Virk, In order to maintain the law and order, the police too had to take action as per guidelines and used mild force to disperse the violent farmers, he added.
The road blockades were lifted later in the evening and vehicular traffic on all the roads was restored after the Karnal police released all those farmers who had been rounded up from Bastara toll plaza.
This is the second violent incident involving cops and farmers after the protest in May when the CM had visited Hisar city for the inauguration of a 500-bed hospital for Covid-19 patients.
Hit protesters on the head: Karnal SDM
A viral video, whose authenticity could not be independently verified, led to massive outrage online as it showed the duty magistrate, identified as Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha, a 2018 IAS officer, instructing cops to hit protesters on their heads if they tried to breach the barricades. “You are free to stop the protesters at any cost. If anybody tries to breach the naka, hit them on the head, nobody will stop you,” he is heard saying in the video clip.
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