‘Acted With Great Restraint’: Haryana Police on Clash With Farmers

Farmers from Punjab are marching towards the national capital against the new farm laws.

Police personnel use water canons on farmers to disperse them during Delhi Chalo protest march against the new farm laws, at Shambhu border in Patiala District.

(Image: PTI)

Farmers marching towards Delhi as part of the ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest against the government’s recent agricultural laws clashed with Haryana Police, who, according to themselves, retaliated with “great restraint”, at the border on Thursday, 26 November, NDTV reported.

State Police Chief Manoj Yadava claimed that the farmers first attacked the police, after which the force acted with “great restraint to ensure law and order is maintained.”

Stressing that the police were doing their duty and stopping the farmer’s march, he said, "Many of our vehicles were damaged by farmers. We tried convincing them to stop their march. We did not use any force against the farmers.”

Farmers also faced water cannons at the state border as they pushed against and broke police barriers in a bid to continue their march to Delhi.

To this, the police chief said, “We are taking all necessary steps to ensure law and order is maintained.”

Later in the evening on Thursday, the farmers had moved closer to the national capital as a result of which there was heavy police deployment at several border points around the state.

At the Punjab-Haryana border in Shambhu, the farmers once again clashed with the police. While the protestors broke barricades and threw stones, the police used tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse the assembly of people. The farmers also flung steel barricades in the Ghaggar river, as they were halted on a bridge.

The state of Haryana, which is ruled by the BJP, has been using heavy force to stop the farmers from continuing their protest march to Delhi, so they can make their voices heard against the central government’s ‘anti-farmer’ laws.

On the Shambhu clash, a farmer from Punjab said, “It is condemnable that Haryana Police is using such measures to suppress an assembly of peaceful protesters. We are protesting in a peaceful manner, but they want to prevent us from using our democratic right to protest”, Outlook reported.

(with inputs from PTI, NDTV and Outlook)