Bathinda, Feb 18: Police used tear gas and established multiple checkpoints across Bathinda on Wednesday to halt a planned indefinite protest by the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) at the District Administrative Complex. The situation escalated in Jeond village, where a standoff between security personnel and union members resulted in injuries and several detentions.
The conflict arose as farmers sought the release of Shagandeep Singh Jeond and Baldev Singh Chauke, who face charges related to an attempt-to-murder case from the previous year. Authorities stated that the march was intercepted to maintain order, noting that some protesters resorted to throwing bricks at the police line.
“We used mild force and lobbed teargas shells to disperse them,” affirmed SSP Jyoti Yadav, who maintained that the police response was necessitated by the actions of the crowd. Officials declared that the area had been under surveillance since Tuesday evening, with major roads leading to Bathinda fortified with barricades.
The union has remained steadfast in its demands, which include the cancellation of five separate FIRs involving over 2,000 farmers. These legal actions stem from a prior protest on February 6 that similarly resulted in a police intervention. Shingara Singh Mann, representing the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), declared that the union would continue to seek the unconditional release of their colleagues.
While many protesters were stopped at Jeond, some individuals managed to bypass the primary cordons to reach the city center, where they were quickly taken into custody. The activists at the center of the dispute have remained in Bathinda jail since their arrest during a land consolidation incident that left several police officers, including a DSP, injured.
