Sec 144 in Fbd, over 2K booked in Palwal, Rewari villages ask farmers to vacate site

Gurugram: While Haryana's largest city, Gurugram, managed to avoid any incident of violence during the farmers' Republic Day tractor parade, Palwal protests saw anarchy, following which police in Palwal on Wednesday registered an FIR against over 2,000 unknown

individuals.

No arrests have been made so far in the case and the charges against protesters include those under sections 307 (attempt of murder), 427 (mischief and causing damage), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (criminal force to prevent public servants of discharge of their duty) of the Indian Penal Code and 8-B of the National Highway Act. The case has been registered at the Gadpuri police station.

"At around 11:30 am around 2,200 farmers and protesters that were moving in 400 tractors suddenly became aggressive and began breaking barricades as they wanted to enter the National Highway and from there entered the National Capital. They were prevented from doing so. We are in the process of identifying these people following which we will make arrests," said Inspector Hanish Khan, the Investigating Officer in the case.

Violent clashes between protestors and police personnel were witnessed at 11:30 am in Safta village in Palwal after protestors broke the barricades and tried to divert away and tried to move towards Delhi. To prevent protestors from doing so, police personnel had resorted to lathicharging the protestors.

Meanwhile, till Wednesday evening internet in most parts of Palwal remained suspended or was slow.

While there has been a lot of attention on the Singhu, Tikri and Shahjahanpur border, thousands of farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana have been protesting at the Faridabad-Palwal border for a month. For a long time, a large number of these farmers have tried to enter Delhi via the Badarpur border. However, each time they have been stopped by law enforcement officials.

But given the violence on Republic Day, many local village heads in Haryana, who have publicly lent support to the farmers' movement withdrew their support.

On Wednesday, village heads of 15 villages in Rewari strictly asked protesting farmers to vacate protesting sites. They have given farmers three days to vacate the sites, failing which they have warned that they will cooperate with law enforcement officials to clear the area of

protestors.

A large number of farmers from Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan had moved ahead and came into Rewari from where they wanted to go to Gurugram and Delhi to register their protest.

Furthermore, Faridabad saw an uneasy silence on Wednesday with the District Magistrate there imposing Section 144 of the CrPC. Many in the area also complained of slow internet connections.