Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal detained by Punjab Police, protest sites cleared

The Punjab Police on Wednesday detained several farmer leaders including Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher in Mohali and dismantled structures at two protest sites along the state’s border with Haryana, PTI reported.

The farmer leaders were detained when they were returning from a meeting with a Union government delegation.

Since February 2024, farmers have been protesting at Shambhu and Khannauri on the Punjab-Haryana border, demanding a legal guarantee for minimum support price. The minimum support price is the cost at which the government procures crops from farmers.

However, both protest sites were emptied out by the police at about 9.30 pm on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported.

“We are over 3,000, and you are only a few hundred,” the newspaper quoted Patiala Deputy Inspector General of Police Mandeep Singh Sidhu as having told the protesters. “We have to clear the sites, come what may. Your leaders have already been detained in Chandigarh… We don’t know what happened in the meeting between the government and union leaders.”

The police officer asked the protesters to board the buses voluntarily, saying that he did not want to use force against them.

#WATCH | Punjab | Police remove farmers from Punjab-Haryana Khanauri Border who were sitting on a protest over various demands.

Amid massive police deployment - farmers were evicted, temporary structures...

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