Fida Hussnain Lahore
The farmers faced police crackdown and arrests as they reached outside the Punjab Assembly to lodge protests against the Punjab government for not delaying purchase of wheat from them across the province.
The farmers reached Faisal Chowk—in front of the provincial legislative assembly—to lodge a protest. They wanted to hold a sit-in against the Punjab government.
However, the police launched a crackdown against the farmers, charged batons and stopped them from protesting or holding sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly for their demands. “Our members are being arrested just for holding protests. We cannot reach outside the Assembly so early. We are working on our line of action. I fear that the police will arrest them midway,” said Mian Umair, President of Kisan Ittehad.
“This is our genuine concern. The purchase has been delayed, and the weather conditions are also before everyone. We have suffered a lot,” he added.
Kisan Ittehad, a farmers’ alliance led by Vice President Sabir Niaz Kombuh, had called for a sit-in protest outside the Punjab Assembly on Monday.
The protest is in response to the Punjab government’s failure to begin wheat procurement. The farmers from multiple cities flocked to Lahore in solidarity.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples’
