Families of arrested farmers stare at uncertainty, chaos

New Delhi: While farmer leaders have escalated the issue of protesters "missing" since the Republic Day tractor parade in the City and the Delhi Police have released a list of all those arrested in cases related to the violence that erupted, families of those in custody are staring at uncertainty, tension and chaos at protest sites.

A list of 122 people has been released by the Delhi Police, all of whom have been protesting against the three farm laws. The age of the protesters varies between 18 to 80. Many families had complained to the farm leaders that their members had been missing since the January 26 rally, raising alarm that the list was quite long.

Balbeer Singh, a resident of Punjab's Moga had come to know about his cousin brother Baldhir Singh, who is locked up at Tihar three to four days after the incident had taken place.

The 30-year-old Baldhir had been protesting at Tikri border for some weeks. "On January 26, he was picked up by the police along with other protesters is what we know. All we know is that he did not participate in the Red Fort incident," Balbeer told Millennium Post over the phone.

A visibly tensed environment loomed over Baldhir's house as the family sat clueless about the charges slapped on him. Baldhir's father is no more and he along with his brother had been sitting at the Tikri Border protest site, demanding the repeal of three farm laws.

"We do not have much information and are not aware whether an FIR has been filed or not or what is happening," Balbeer said.

Meanwhile, Amritpal Singh from Moga has also been locked up with the family clueless about his whereabouts. His brother who did not have a lot of information on the case said, "On January 27, I got a call from someone telling me that my brother has been jailed and that a lawyer will be provided. We have no idea where they took him. We just know that my brother is in jail but we have no other information," Amritpal's brother said.

A team of legal experts has been set up meanwhile that is handling all the cases.

"All of them are in contact with these families. We have given an emergency number regard to this. We have also shared numbers of our legal committee which is looking into these issues. A help desk has been set up at the Singhu stage. We are also in touch with Delhi Police officers," media coordinator of Samyukt Kisan Morcha Harinder Singh said.