A 21-year-old protestor died on Wednesday of a head injury sustained during police action against farmers in the town of Khanauri near the border between Punjab and Haryana, the Congress alleged. Later in the day, a protest leader said that a proposed march to Delhi will be halted for two days.
The Haryana Police, however, said they had not received information about the death of any farmer during the protest at the state border, and that the claim was merely a rumour.
Protesting farmers have called for a march to Delhi to seek a law guaranteeing a minimum support price for agricultural commodities and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission Report’s wider recommendations on farming in India.
However, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said later on Wednesday that the march to Delhi has been suspended for two days. “We will have discussions over the incident that took place in Khanauri,” he said, according to ANI. “We will clarify the entire situation later as to what our further movement will be.”
The Haryana Youth Congress said on X that Shubhkaran Singh, a protestor, died due to police action against the demonstrator. “This violence against our youth and farmers must end,” the state Youth Congress said. “We demand justice for Shubhkaran and call for an immediate, peaceful resolution to the protests.”
Singh was taken to the Government Medical College and Rajendra Hospital in Punjab’s Patiala city, The Quint reported. “He was already dead when he was brought to the hospital at around 3 pm,” Harnam Singh, medical superintendent at the hospital said. “He suffered bullet injuries in his head.”
Gurwinder Singh Baloh, the vice-president of a farmers’ union named Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Malwa), also confirmed the death and alleged that Shubhkaran Singh died in police firing.
The Haryana Police, however, said that no farmer died during the protest on Wednesday. The authorities said that two police personnel and one protestor were injured in the agitation and are undergoing treatment.
On Friday, a 65-year-old farmer from Punjab named Gyan Singh died after suffering a heart attack at the Shambhu border. On the same day, a 56-year-old railway police officer named Hira Lal also died of a heart attack while deployed near the Shambhu border.
Later in the day, the Haryana Police claimed that 12 police personnel had been seriously injured in the violence at Khanauri. The police claimed that farmers attacked security forces using lathis, farming implements, stones and by burning stubble laden with chilly powder.
The deputy inspector general of Punjab’s Patiala police range, HS Bhullar, alleged that the Haryana Police had fired 14 tear gas shells at farmers at the Shambhu border, without any provocation, reported The Indian Express.
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