‘Liveliest in the group’: 21-yr-old farmer who died at Khanauri was lone breadwinner
Shubh Karan Singh, a 21-year-old farmer protester, died from injuries caused by a "bullet" during the ongoing agitation, complicating government-farmer negotiations.
Shubh Karan Singh, 21, a teenage protester during the 2020-21 farm protests, became the first farmer to die in the ongoing farmer agitation, died of injuries from what officials described as a “bullet”, without clarifying if it was a rubber bullet or a normal bullet, with his death likely making it more difficult for the government and farmers to arrive at a settlement.
Singh’s death was confirmed by a local hospital, Punjab government, and farm groups. “He was brought dead, and on initial examination it appears that he was hit by a bullet. We will be able to ascertain the nature of the bullet only after a post-mortem,” said HS Rekhi, medical superintendent of Patiala-based Rajindra Hospital.
Soon after the death, farmers decided to “stall the march” for two days. “We have decided to put our march to Delhi on hold till Friday (February 23) because a large number of farmers have been injured in police action and one farmer has been killed. There are issues of cremation, treatment and compensation etc. That’s why we have decided to stall the march to Delhi till Friday,” said Sarwan Singh Pandher, coordinator of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha
Singh was among 15 farmers who left their homes in Balloch village in Punjab’s Bathinda district to march to Delhi. He died near the Khanauri border between the state and Haryana. Singh’s relatives and members of farmers group, who claimed Singh was hit by a bullet, said they would not collect the body from the Patiala-based Rajindra until there was action taken by the government. Singh’s relatives said he owns around 1.5 acres of land.
“If you compare the size of the land he owns with other villagers then it is a very small plot. It is not even enough to make ends meet. Singh’s father suffers from a mental illness and he lost his mother 15 years ago. He was also the only son and the family’s breadwinner ,” his cousin Gurpreet Singh said.
Stopped from marching to Delhi, thousands of farmers from Punjab have laid siege to the borders between Punjab and Haryana over a raft of demands, including a law on minimum support prices (MSP). The farmers have also sought debt waivers, jobs for relatives of people killed during the 13-month-long farmers protest in Delhi between November 2020 and December 2021, compensation for the farmers injured in Lakhimpur Kheri in October 2021, and the withdrawal of cases registered against protesting cultivators.
Like hundreds of other farmers, Singh volunteered to drive a tractor to Delhi. The 15 arranged a tractor from their village head. There are around 900 tractors and 9,000 farmers at the Khanauri border. Hours before starting from his village two weeks ago, Singh and the others posed for photographs at the village gate. They then travelled on the Punjab-Delhi highway on February 13 but were stopped at Khanauri.
Karamjeet Singh, also a resident of the same village , said Singh stayed at the Tikri border for almost two months during the 2020-21 farmers protest against the three farm laws that have since been scrapped.
After reaching Khanauri on February 13, Singh, who was the youngest in the group, was given kitchen duty at the border. Describing him as the liveliest in the group, Karamjeet Singh said Singh made chapatis and served dinner to everyone at the camp at the border on Tuesday night. “He is the only son. His elder sister is married. Even during the 2020-21 protest, he would tell us that his next goal was to get his younger sister married,” Karamjeet Singh.
With his father unable to come to Patiala because of his medical condition, on Wednesday evening, villagers were coordinating with the hospital authorities. “His immediate family is not here. No one could come because of the conditions at home. Our unions will demand compensation for his family because there is no one to take care of them,” Karamjeet Singh said.
In the evening, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann confirmed the death and said that his state will file a first information report, or FIR, against the Haryana Police.
“After postmortem, a case will be registered. Those officials responsible for his death will have to face stringent action,” said Mann in a video message this evening.
