Farmers protesting at the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana on Friday suspended their “Delhi Chalo” march after several of them were injured by the police’s firing of teargas shells.

“We have called back the ‘jatha’ for today in view of the injuries suffered by a few farmers,” farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told PTI. The march to Delhi is scheduled to continue on Sunday.

Pandher claimed that five to six protesting farmers were injured due to the teargas shelling by Haryana security personnel.

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The protestors are calling for the Union government to guarantee a minimum support price for their farm produce, among other demands.

A group of 101 farmers were to begin their foot march to Delhi on Friday afternoon from their protest site at the Shambhu border point.

There was a heavy deployment of security personnel on the Haryana side of the border.

The security personnel hurled multiple rounds of teargas shells to disperse the protesting farmers, according to PTI.

Earlier on Friday, the administration in Haryana’s Ambala suspended mobile internet and bulk SMS services in 11 villages of the district till 11.59 pm on Monday ahead of the farmers’ march.

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The Ambala administration had already restricted unlawful assembly of five or more persons in the district under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, The New Indian Express reported.

Authorities in Ambala had also ordered all government and private schools in the district to remain closed on Friday.

The prohibitory orders were also imposed in neighbouring Kaithal district on Friday morning, reported Hindustan Times.

The farmers have been camping at the border points of Shambhu and Khanauri since February. This was their first attempt to march towards Delhi since then.

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