The Bijnore police have said they will prevent farmers of the district in the western part of Uttar Pradesh from travelling to Ghazipur, some 150 kilometres away, where Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait is leading a protest on the Delhi border.
They have put up barricades on Bijnor's border points while their personnel are intensively checking vehicles heading towards the national capital. "Section 144 and Covid protocols are in place. The protest site at the Ghazipur-Delhi border has been declared 'unlawful'. And so if any farmer takes a four-wheeler, two-wheeler, or tractor towards that site, we will take strict action," Bijnor police chief Dr Dharm Veer Singh told media persons. "District borders are sealed, and we are checking all entry and exit points. If anyone violates this, the police will take strict action."
Local media reports, however, showed farmer leaders in the district raising slogans backing the Ghazipur protests and saying that they will go to Ghazipur at any cost. "I am sure the administration will support us, we are fighting for our rights," a farmer leader, identified as only Vijay, told reporters.
A tense night on Thursday at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur saw the police first trying to drive farmers away from protest sites and then the protesters returning after watching a widely-circulated video of Mr Tikait breaking down and declaring tearfully that he was ready to "face bullets or kill himself".
BKU has called a Mahapanchayat or meeting amid a huge backlash over violence during their tractor rally on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, some parts of the Delhi border, too, have been closed to traffic. Last evening, the administrations in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana ordered the police to remove thousands of farmers who have been protesting at various points outside Delhi against three Central agricultural laws for over two months.
The UP police's move comes amid a worsening of the face-off between the farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, and the Central government, particularly after the violence on Republic Day. Meanwhile, some 18 opposition parties boycotted President Ram Nath Kovind's address today to the both Houses of Parliament. They, too, are protesting the Centre's handling of the farmer agitation and have backed the protesters.
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