Farm leaders Jagjit Dallewal, Sarwan Pandher detained by cops in Mohali

Farm leaders

The Punjab Police on Wednesday detained farmer leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, and 200 others, as a group of farmers clashed with security personnel while they were heading to the Khanauri and Shambhu border points, where the protesting farmers have been camping since February 13 last year.

While Dallewal and Pandher were detained in Mohali, 200 farmers were detained at the Khanauri border. According to reports, around 300 farmers will be detained shortly at the Shambhu border.

In Mohali, the farmers were marching to the Khanauri and Shambhu borders after holding a meeting with a central delegation in Chandigarh. They clashed with the police personnel, who deployed barricades in a bid to prevent them from marching ahead.

The protesting farmers have been camping at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.

Besides the legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

Police also removed fans from the temporary stage set up by farmers at the Shambhu border where they were sitting on a protest over various demands.