After police clampdown on Feb 6 and 18, 48 farmers’ bodies announce to protest outside Bathinda DC office on March 6

However, despite the Punjab and Haryana High Court granting bail to both leaders on February 18, the farmer organisations announced a protest on March 6 to expand their agitation by bringing together 48 organisations on a common platform.

“This protest has been announced outside the Bathinda Deputy Commissioner’s office. In a democracy, they can’t prevent our right to protest. On February 6 and 18, only one organisation had given the protest call. Now, we have 48. Let’s see if they will stop us again,” BKU (Ugrahan) Bathinda unit president Shingara Singh Mann said.

“The organisations demanded that cases of attempt to murder and abduction be registered against Bathinda SSP Jyoti Yadav and other responsible police officers, including Gurpreet Singh, Manoj Kumar, Narinder, Amrik Singh and Rahul Bhardwaj, along with all other guilty personnel involved in the incident,” Shingara said.

“Holding the Punjab government directly responsible for the incident, the organisations demanded a public apology and called for the “immediate dismissal of SSP Jyoti Yadav,” said Joginder Singh Ugrahan, state president of BKU Ugrahan.

The meeting was attended by representatives of farmers’, agricultural labourers’, industrial workers’, teachers’, power employees’, contractual employees’, students’, cultural organisations and democratic rights groups, said Ugrahan.

At the meeting, all speakers unanimously condemned the police action that took place in Jeond village and the surrounding areas. They alleged that on February 18, farmer Charanjit Singh was “abducted and assaulted with the intent to kill and permanently disable him”, resulting in a fractured head and a crushed leg. A youth was also attacked, leaving his hand injured, the speakers said, describing the incident as “an authoritarian act”.

Ugrahan alleged that despite statements of the injured being recorded by the police, no case was registered against the accused police personnel. The leaders accused the AAP government of “using repression against farmers, labourers, employees, unemployed youth and women”.

The speakers said that fake police encounters are increasingly being staged openly in Punjab, youths are being shot in the legs, and bulldozers are being used on people’s homes, turning Punjab into a police state.

They appealed to “all struggling, justice-loving and democratic organisations” to participate, along with their families, in the protest against police repression being held in Bathinda on March 6.