Police use tear gas near Shambhu border as protesting farmers resume march to Delhi today

New Delhi/IBNS: The police used tear gas once again on Sunday afternoon to disperse the protesting farmers at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab as they resumed their march to Delhi.

A group of 101 farmers started marching towards Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

According to reports, many of them are wearing masks, goggles, and other protective gear to combat the tear gas shelling.

The protest is being supported by the farmer bodies Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.

Cops have raised doubt on the identity of some of the protesters and said they will be allowed to proceed only after verification.

"We have a list of the names of 101 farmers and they are not those people. They are not letting us identify them - they are moving ahead as a mob," a Haryana police official told ANI.

A protesting farmer, however, said that the cops have a wrong list of names.

"Their list doesn't have the names of farmers coming here. We have asked them (the police) to let us move ahead and we will show them our identity cards. But the police are saying that we don't have the permission to move ahead," the farmer told ANI.

Protesting farmers, on a 'Dilli chalo' march Friday afternoon with a list of nearly five-year-old demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices (MSP), were forced to call a temporary halt after tear gas shells were fired by police blocking their path to the national capital.

Eight people were injured, and two others seriously wounded, according to farmers, during the clash that took place on National Highway 44, near Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border on Friday.

"Police used their full force against us. We were quite disciplined and were holding the protest peacefully. We knew we wouldn't be able to fight the might of the force used against us," farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters.

"So we have called back the protest for today," he had said.

Police fired tear gas shells at farmers who were camping at the Shambhu border close to Haryana's Ambala when they tried to break barricades in their attempt to reach Delhi as a part of their protest on Friday.

According to reports, one of the protesting farmers has been detained by the police.

Farmers are protesting to seek a legal guarantee for MSP for crops.

Police had earlier stopped the farmers when they tried to march towards Delhi on February 13 and February 21.

Since then, these farmers have campaigned in Shambhu and Khanauri border points under the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) banner and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.