E-Paper
Sign In
India: Police bulldoze farmer protest sites, tear down temporary camps; hundreds arrested
PM Narendra Modi's government was forced to repeal some farm laws in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers when they camped outside Delhi for months
- PUBLISHED: Thu 20 Mar 2025, 10:22 AM
Police in India's northern state of Punjab detained hundreds of farmers and used bulldozers to tear down their temporary camps in a border area where they had protested for more than a year to demand better crop prices.
The farmers had camped on the border with adjoining Haryana since last February, when security forces halted their march toward the capital, New Delhi, to press for legally-backed guarantees of more state support for crops.
#WATCH | Police yesterday demolished the tents erected by farmers at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu Border, where they were sitting in protest over their various demands. pic.twitter.com/2RorWbANC9
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025
Recommended For You
"We did not need to use any force because there was no resistance," Nanak Singh, a senior police officer, told the ANI news agency about Wednesday night's clearance action. "The farmers cooperated well and they sat in buses themselves."
The farmers had been given prior notice, he added.
Television images showed police using bulldozers to demolish tents and stages, while escorting farmers carrying personal items to vehicles.
#WATCH | Visuals from the Punjab-Haryana Khanauri Border where Punjab Police brings in tow trucks and cranes to remove farmers' tractors, trucks, and other belongings.
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025
Yesterday, late in the evening, Punjab police removed the farmers from the Punjab-Haryana Khanauri Border and⦠pic.twitter.com/608DMGzJrp
Media said among the hundreds detained were farmers' leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the latter carried away in an ambulance as he had been on an indefinite protest fast for months.
#WATCH | Jalandhar, Punjab: Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal being shifted from Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Jalandhar
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025
Yesterday, late in the evening, Punjab police removed the farmers from the Punjab-Haryana Khanauri Border and Shambhu Border, where they⦠pic.twitter.com/tBbZHnC1s0
"On one hand the government is negotiating with the farmer organisations and on the other hand it is arresting them," Rakesh Tikait, a spokesperson for farmer group Bhartiya Kisan Union said on X.
Punjab's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which authorised the eviction, said it stood by the farmers in their demands, but asked them to take up their grievances with the federal government.
"Let's work together to safeguard Punjab's interests," said the party's vice president in the state, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, adding that the blockage of key roads had hurt the state's economy. "Closing highways is not the solution."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was forced to repeal some farm laws in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers when they camped outside Delhi for months.
Federal government officials met the farmers' leaders on Wednesday, said Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, the vice president of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab.
"It is clear that this arrest is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the ongoing dialogue between farmers and BJP leadership," he added in a post on X.