High drama unfolded in Moga Thursday afternoon when around 36 farmers, including six women, were detained for staging a dharna on the Ludhiana–Ferozepur railway line crossing.
The farmers, who were protesting the registration of FIR against a farmer in a sand-mining case, were released around 9.30 pm, Thursday.
The protest stems from the November 4 arrest of a farmer from Manjhli village, who was taken into custody for allegedly removing sand from his own fields and later sent to judicial remand.
Avtar Singh Moga, press secretary of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) who was also one of the rounded up farmer, said, “They arrested Gurdial Singh and now they are saying that they will investigate the matter. The villagers suffered due to floods earlier and now the mining department is not even allowing them to sell sand.”
While sources said that the farmer was sand mining from his field after the stipulated time of 5 pm, Avtar said that the mining team came around 5.20pm when Gurdial was taking out his machine.
Sundeep Singh, SP (Headquarters) of Moga, said, “Railway and Punjab Police removed the dharna to maintain law and order, and some protesters were rounded up. We are here to listen to their grievances but cannot allow anyone to take the law into their own hands.”
Meanwhile, farmer KMM leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher said that a meeting of farm unions will be held on November 7 at Kisan Bhawan, Chandigarh, where the issue will be discussed.
