Day before protest, several SKM leaders put under 'house arrest' in Punjab

Farmer leaders have claimed that several Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal, were put under house arrest by the Punjab government on Monday, ahead of their scheduled protest outside the Shambhu police station.

The May 6 protest was called against the Punjab government over its alleged use of repressive methods to evict protesting farmers from Shambhu and Khanauri border points in March.

The farmer leaders claimed that Punjab Police personnel reached their houses early morning to detain them. They said police wanted to prevent them from mobilising people for Tuesday's protest. 

"Dallewal was put under house arrest at around 4 am at his house in Faridkot district," a farmer leader said. 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.

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.

Following his alleged house arrest, Dallewal, who had ended his prolonged fast in April, uploaded a video on social media.

"I am still weak and even now, I can barely walk, and yet they have confined me to my home," Dallewal said, adding that they had announced a day's peaceful protest outside the Shambhu police station, but the government got "scared" and is not allowing them to gather.

In the past, many farmer leaders have alleged that the protesters suffered heavy losses as their trolleys and other belongings were stolen from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points following police action and not all the lost belongings had been recovered.

Dallewal said the state police had assured that farmers would be compensated for the loss of their stolen articles, which have not been recovered.

"Rather than taking prompt action against the culprits, the police started registering cases against those people who were assisting in tracing the missing articles of farmers... When we called for a protest on May 6, the government got so scared that it decided to not let us gather," Dallewal said. 

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.

The meeting was organised to discuss the farmers' demands, which include the MSP guarantee.

Punjab Police had also evicted farmers and dismantled temporary structures from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points, where the sit-ins were being held by them for over a year.

Dallewal is a senior leader of a joint forum of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), which had spearheaded the agitation at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points in support of their various demands.

Dallewal had begun his indefinite hunger strike on November 26 last year to press the Centre to accept the farmers' demands. He had ended his fast-unto-death in early April after Punjab Police cracked down on agitating farmers.