BKU faction leaders ‘detained’ by Punjab Police day ahead of protest, alleges Dallewal

Key activists of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur), including president Jagjit Singh Dallewal, were detained on Tuesday in various districts ahead of the call for a one-day dharna outside Shambhu police station, farmers leaders said.

According to the information, union president Dallewal has been asked by the police not to leave his residence in the Faridkot district. A team of police officials reached Dallewal village at around 4 am and asked the veteran farm leader to stay at his house for the next 3-4 days.

Police authorities, however, didn’t comment on the issue, with the top brass remaining tight-lipped over the action.

Several other leaders faced a similar ordeal in different districts of the state, the farmer leaders said. Among those detained are Manjit Singh Rai and Davinder Singh.

Official sources said several other leaders are facing police action to ensure that BKU (Sidhupur) cannot mobilise its cadre for tomorrow’s agitation.

The farmers’ body had recently announced to hold a protest outside the Shambhu police station on Tuesday against the state government’s alleged use of repressive methods to evict them from their protest morchas in March, and also demanding strict action against those people who stole many of their belongings when they were evicted.

Dallewal posted a video on his Facebook page to criticise the police action against the Sidhupur faction. He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is harassing the farmers’ rights group, which is fighting for justice.

Dallewal said the union activists were scheduled to gather outside the Shambhu police station to highlight the alleged police misconduct and harassment of union volunteers.

He said when the dharnas site at Khanauri and Shambhu were forcibly evicted by the police, the volunteers faced police misbehaviour and tractor trolleys and several other items of farmers went missing.

“When our union demanded compensation for missing articles, the state police head ensured that losses would be compensated. The missing things were traced to close associates of AAP leaders and police personnel. Instead of initiating swift action against the culprit, the police started booking individuals who were tracking the missing farmers’ articles. Now, when we planned against the police conduct, the government started an attempt to derail our agitation for May 6,” said Dallewal.

On March 19, the Punjab Police had cracked down on agitating farmers, detaining their leaders in Mohali when they were returning from a meeting with a central delegation led by agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Chandigarh.

The farmer leaders and some other farmers who were detained were released in subsequent days.