New Delhi: Clashes broke out between agitating farmers and a large group of people claiming to be locals at the Singhu border here Friday. In the ensuing clashes, police resorted to lathicharge and used tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. During the skirmish, a Delhi police personnel was stabbed. He has been admitted to a hospital and is said to stable. The locals demanded that farmers vacate the Singhu border protest site. This is because they had ‘insulted’ the national flag during their tractor parade on Republic Day.
Armed with sticks, the group of locals reached the site and asked the farmers to leave while raising slogans against them. Both sides also pelted stones at each other.
Meanwhile the protesting farmers have turned their place at the Singhu border into a fortress. Multi-layered security arrangements, barricades put everywhere and all entry points have been sealed at the Singhu border. It is the nerve-centre of the ongoing farmers protest with thousands of security personnel seen marching at the site.
The heightened security measures and restrictions have been brought into place after violence on Republic Day. It left 394 policemen injured and one protestor dead. No one, even media personnel are allowed to enter the protest site with area cordoned off by multiple concrete barricades and intermodal containers.
“These batons, tear gas shells and ammunition can’t scare us. We won’t budge, we won’t leave till our demands of repealing three farm laws are met,” said 26-year-old Manjeet Dhillon. He is from Haryana’s Kaithal.
There is a sense of unease among some protestors. However, nothing has changed at the respective stages of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti (KMSC), where decibel levels, courtesy the fiery speeches, were high like before.
The SKM has blamed the KMSC, actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu and the central government for the violence during the farmers’ tractor parade January 26.
Ram Bhados, the only shop open at the whole stretch, said he opened it after being asked to do so by the security forces. “I didn’t want to open the shop. I am afraid things might get violent. They (the security personnel) asked me to open the tea-shop and serve them. They said they’ll protect me,” said the visibly-tensed 18-year-old.
