‘Rail roko’ continues near Shambhu, farmers to hold panchayat on April 22

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 19

The ‘rail roko’ protest by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha continued for the third consecutive day near Shambhu railway station near Rajpura. A meeting of farmer leaders was held on Friday in which it was decided that a panchayat will be organised in Jind district on April 22 to raise the issue of three arrested farmers and police atrocities during the farmer protest leading to the killing of Shubhkaran Singh on February 21.

Inviting BJP leaders for open debate on the farm issues, leaders of both the forums said they would be present at Kisan Bhawan in Chandigarh on April 23 and would wait for the top central leadership of the BJP for an open debate.

The fresh tussle has appeared following the arrest of three farmers in Haryana. The farmers are demanding the release of three fellow protesters —Navdeep Singh, Anish Khatkar and Gurkirat Singh — who were arrested in February and March by the Haryana Police.

The farm union leaders said the protest would continue till the farmers were not released. Farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the ‘rail roko’ protest was being organised to oppose the arrest of three farmers.

He said they were implicated in a false case and the protest would continue till the farmers were released by the Haryana Police.

The farmers had first announced a ‘rail roko’ protest on April 9. However, the plan was shelved following an assurance by the Punjab and Haryana authorities that the farmers would be released by April 16. However, Navdeep, Anish and Gurkirat were not released.

The protest by farmers affected the train services in the region and many trains from the Ambala and Ferozepur division have been either rerouted either from Chandigarh or Dhuri in Sangrur. Few of the trains have also been cancelled.

The farmers are protesting at Shambhu and Khanauri borders since February 14 accusing the BJP government for no fulfilling the promises made during previous 2020- 2021 farmers’ protest.

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