Karnal Protest: Situation Tense as Farmers Threaten Singhu-Like Agitation

A tense standoff between local administration and protesting farmers in Karnal on Wednesday fuelled fears of a Singhu border like situation developing near mini secretariat where tents were pitched through the day and farmer leaders threatened a long haul.

The three-hour-long talks between the district administration and the protesting farmers ended in deadlock with the latter rigid in their stand on seeking dismissal of an IAS officer who had ordered lathi-charge on August 28. The administration too seemed unrelenting in accepting the demand.

(Image: News18)

“Yesterday, we had two-hour-long talks and today also the meeting went on for three hours but it seems that the government doesn’t want an end to the dharna so we have decided to open a front here by sitting on a dharna. We won’t go anywhere, farmers from UP and Punjab will also join us here,” claimed farmer leader Rakesh Tikait.

Even as the talks failed, security was further beefed up and more police personnel were requisitioned fuelling fears of a confrontation. Till so far the dharna has not witnessed any skirmish between the two. “We will sit here peacefully. We don’t want any confrontation. But won’t relent on our demands,” maintained another protesting leader Yogendra Yadav.

(Image: News18)

The standoff spilt into the second day on Wednesday as farmers spent the night outside the mini secretariat after a day of failed talks on Tuesday. Led by a joint action front of 13 farmer unions, the protesters have been demanding criminal action against an IAS officer and the cops involved in a police lathi charge on August 28. A video circulating hours after the incident showed Ayush Sinha, an Indian Administrative Service officer of the Haryana cadre, asking policemen to “smash the heads” of protesters breaking down police barricades.

IAS officer Sanjeev Verma, who’s the commissioner of the Karnal Division, was part of Wednesday’s meeting, which lasted three hours.

Protesters want Sinha to face either murder (Section 302, Indian Penal Code) or attempted murder charges (Section 307, Indian Penal Code), but the administration has so far refused to give in.

Locked in a showdown with the Haryana government over the lathi-charge, the farmers squatted at the gates of the mini-secretariat on Tuesday evening after talks with the local administration failed.

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