May 17 2021 Hundreds of farmers protesting at the scene clashed with police in Haryana, India, at 10 a.m. local time, resulting in more than 20 police officers being hospitalized and more than 70 farmers injured.
Manohar Lal Khattar, chief minister of Haryana state, arrived in Chisar on the morning of the 16th to hold an opening ceremony for a Coronavirus hospital, which has 500 beds for the Coronavirus patients, the Indian Express reported. Shortly afterwards, farmers who had staged a local sit-in against the new agricultural law began to march in open spaces, chanting anti-government slogans.
As farmers marched near the ceremony site, they quickly broke barricades, threw stones at the police, who also threw stones at them and continued to fire tear gas at them, waving police whips to disperse them, and police eventually detained 85 farmers. A spokesman for Thessal police said 20 police officers were injured in the clashes, including five policewomen and a superintendent.
Farmers’ leader Vikas Cesar said more than 70 farmers who took part in the protests were injured. Gunam Singh Chadhuni, president of india’s trade union, strongly condemned the police attack on farmers and called on them to block all national roads and blackmail the police. Chadhuni said: “The Indian government has issued the relevant Coronavirus pandemic prevention and control regulations, why can so many people gather at the venue, video shows that there are more than 500 people in the venue, why can’t the opening ceremony be held online?”
