Policeman Injured, Tear Gas Shells Fired As Cops, Farmers Clash In Haryana
Chandigarh: A police officer was injured Friday in a pitched battle between protesting farmers and cops in Khedi Chwpata in Haryana’s Hisar. Visuals showed a chaotic and volatile situation; police – escorted by riot personnel in full gear – can be seen taking people into custody while angry farmers surrounded them threateningly, shouting and jeering. The violence – in which tear gas shells were fired and police resorted to a lathi charge, while protesters threw stones – broke after the farmers were stopped from marching to Khanauri on the Punjab border to join thousands of their colleagues who have gathered there, and at the Shambhu border crossing, ahead of a ‘Delhi Chalo’ march to demand a legal guarantee for MSP, or minimum support price, and waiver of farm loans, pensions, and ollback of increased electricity rates, among other things. Earlier today a 62-year-old farmer died in Khanauri after suffering a cardiac arrest. Darshan Singh was from Punjab’s Bathinda district, and was the second person from Bathinda to have died in these protests; on Wednesday Subhkaran …