Stir regains momentum as Tikait succeeds in mobilising support
Ghaziabad/ New Delhi: Agitating farmer leaders held a day-long fast at various protest sites on Delhi's borders on Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary on Saturday as the stir against the agri laws appeared to regain momentum after rallying support from the agricultural community of the crucial western Uttar Pradesh region.
More farmers gathered at Ghazipur, on the Delhi-Meerut highway that has now become the new focal point of the stir, while union leaders claimed that protesters were also heading back to Singhu and Tikri borders from Punjab and Haryana, days after the crowds had waned following the violence at the tractor rally on January 26.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has temporarily suspended Internet services at the Singhu, Ghazipur, and Tikri borders, where farmers have been protesting against the new agri laws, an official said on Saturday.
Apart from the three borders of Delhi, Internet services will remain suspended in their adjoining areas too effective from 11 pm of January 29 to 11 pm of January 31, the official said.
The decision has been taken to "maintain public safety and averting public emergency" under Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017, the official said.
Security personnel, including from anti-riot police and paramilitary forces, were deployed in strength. Multiple layers of barricades including concrete blocks were being put at the protest sites.
Wearing garlands, the farmer leaders, who had called for observing 'Sadbhavana Diwas' (Harmony Day) on Saturday after the immense outrage over violence by protesters during their Republic Day tractor rally, sat on the dais during the fast, as crowds of supporters swelled, especially in Ghazipur where the Bharatiya Kisan Union is leading the protest.
Addressing the protesters in Ghazipur, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, whose emotional appeal had galvanised farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to flock to the protest site, said they have fought this battle for over two months now, and "they won't relent or retreat".
"The movement was and is strong," BKU's Meerut Zone president Pawan Khatana said, a day after tens of thousands of farmers from politically sensitive western Uttar Pradesh had gathered in Muzaffarnagar to participate in a mahapanchayat in a massive outpouring of support for the Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest.
The Delhi Police have so far registered 38 cases and arrested 84 people in connection with the violence during a tractor parade by farmers here on Republic Day, officials said on Saturday.
