Farmers lay on railway tracks and turned them into open-air gymnasiums to stop trains in parts of northern India to demand the ouster of Union Minister Ajay Mishra in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri killings, which drew a mixed response.
Train services were affected at 150 different locations across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as farmers squatted on railway tracks to “seek justice” for the victims of the Lakhimpur killing on October 3 when an SUV belonging to Mishra mowed down four farmers.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella organisation spearheading protests against the three farm laws since November last year, had given the call for a nationwide rail roko to demand Mishra's ouster from the Union Council of Ministers.
The Delhi Police said there were no reports of any disturbance in the national capital due to SKM's six-hour 'rail roko' protest.
Videos and photographs shared by the farmers' organisations showed protestors lying on the tracks, performing push-ups and other exercises on the rails to prevent the movement of trains.
Similar protests were reported from Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Moga, Patiala and Ferozepur in Punjab, and Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat, Kurukshetra, Jind, Karnal and Hisar in Haryana.
In Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, Bharatiya Kisan Union workers halted the Amritsar-Delhi and the Jalandhar Express trains by staging a dharna on rail tracks.
The Northern Railway had to cancel 25 passenger and short-distance trains, while the North-Western Railway had to cancel 18 trains and partially cancel services of 10 trains.
In Rajasthan, farmers held a protest on the tracks in the Hanumangarh district and raised slogans against the Central and the Uttar Pradesh governments. In the state capital, members of the SKM staged a protest at the entrance of the Jaipur Junction station.
(Published 18 October 2021, 16:56 IST)
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