Tear Gas Fired As Protesting Farmers Gather At Shambhu Border

As farmers gathered to resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest at the Shambhu border near Ambala on Wednesday morning, security personnel fired some tear gas shells at them, the demonstrators claimed.

Now, the protesting farmers from Punjab have plans to make a fresh attempt to break past the multiple layers of barricades at the border with Haryana in an attempt to march to Delhi to press for various demands.

Protesters claimed that security personnel from Haryana lobbed a few tear gas shells at around 8 am on Wednesday when some farmers gathered near the barricades at the Shambhu border.

On Tuesday, February 13, farmers had clashed with Haryana Police at two border points between the states, facing water cannons and tear gas as they tried to break the barricades blocking their protest march to the national capital.

After a face-off with police that lasted several hours on Tuesday, farmer leaders had called off the protest for the day and said that they would resume the march from Shambhu on Wednesday.

The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) are spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation to put pressure on the Centre for their demands, including a law on minimum support price for crops and loan waivers.

Farmers, during their protest on February 13 at the Shambhu border — with the help of tractors — managed to remove some of the cemented barricades and iron nails which were part of the elaborate arrangements made by the Haryana authorities to prevent protesters from heading to Delhi.

A deputy superintendent of police and 23 other police personnel were injured as protesters hurled stones at them, according to officials.

Police used water cannons and tear gas against the protesters at the border in Haryana’s Jind district as well. Nine policemen suffered injuries in this clash at Data Singhwala-Khanauri border, according to police.

On Tuesday, farmer leaders blamed the Centre for the “attack” on protesters marching towards Delhi and claimed that 60 of them were injured as police used tear gas shells at Punjab-Haryana border points.

Again on Tuesday, the Haryana government had extended the suspension of mobile internet services, dongle services and bulk SMS in seven districts — Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa till 15 February.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has sounded an alert in hospitals located near the border with Haryana in the wake of many farmers getting injured following clashes with police at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders.

Farmer protest 2.0, started by tens of thousands of farmers on 13 February 2024 morning is an ongoing protest to demand government’s guarantee on assured floor prices or Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crop produce in a repeat of the 2020-2021 Indian farmers’ protest.

The farmers converged at the borders and tried to march to New Delhi as the negotiations between the farmers’ leaders and the government officials on 12 February, which went on till late in the night, yielded no result.

With hundreds of thousands of farmers marching towards the capital city, the police sealed the borders and placed barricades to prevent the farmers from entering the capital city. Tear gas canisters and water canons were used at some borders to disperse the gathering crowds of farmers, who turned out in tens of thousands on tractors, trucks and on foot.

Huge cement boulders with spikes on the top, barbed wire and metal blocks were used to barricade the border points. Section 144 was imposed for a month preventing the gathering of three or more people.