Two farmers die during protests

Tribune News Service

Bathinda/Patiala, October 17

A farmer sitting on an indefinite ‘rail roko’ agitation against farm laws for the past 17 days reportedly died of a heart attack in Mansa district today. The deceased has been identified as 50-year-old Jagtar Singh, who was a resident of Guradi village in Mansa.

The deceased, whose wife died two years ago due to cancer, has left behind three children. As per residents of the village, Jagtar had an outstanding debt running into lakhs of rupees.

Balkaran Singh, a farm union leader, said, “Jagtar was participating in the indefinite protests for past two weeks. He was a member of the BKU (Kadian). Today, he participated in a march which was carried out in different parts of the city. After reaching the Railway Lines area, he felt uneasy and was taken to a government hospital but doctors declared him brought dead. He owned three acres of agricultural land.”

In Patiala, a farmer leader also died of heart attack while protesting against three farm Acts. Harbans Singh, 73, was leading the protest against the Acts near Mehmadpur Jattan village in Patiala.

He suffered a heart attack and died on the spot. Minutes before his death, Harbans, a member of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) had burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — as a mark of protest against the Acts.

While addressing protesters, Harbans had said the Modi government had insulted the farmers by not including any minster in the meeting called at Delhi. “Therefore, we are burning the effigy of the Prime Minister,” he added.

Famer union leaders Jagmohan Singh, Dr Drashan Pal, Gurbax Singh Balbera, Satnam Singh, Ranjit Singh Swajpur condoled the demise of Harbans. The farmers unions declared Harbans Singh martyr who died fighting for the farming community.