Nails on road, barricades, cement walls: Delhi Police turns farmers’ protest sites into fortresses

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 02, 2021:    Roads cemented with a bed of nails, concrete walls erected between barriers, multi-layer barricading and lines upon lines of police personnel -- these are scenes reported from conflict zones, not the outskirts of the national capital of India.

 

The Delhi Police on Monday turned the three major farmers’ protest sites -- Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur into fortresses with multi-layer barricades and heavy security deployment.

The move comes days after the violent clashes between some protesters and police on January 26 during the tractor parade by the agitating farmers.

A section of the highway at the Singhu border, which has been the epicentre of the farmers’ protests for over 60 days, had also seen a clash recently between farmers and a group of people who claimed to be local residents.

The visuals of the extreme security measures went viral on social media, with many questioning if these were from the international borders of India.

1. SINGHU BORDER

Workers under the watch of police personnel on Monday were seen hooking iron rods between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters agitating against the new farm laws at the site.

At Singhu today. Multiple barricades, more concrete. pic.twitter.com/HFqH5HzFVA

— Kainat Sarfaraz. (@kainisms) February 1, 2021

Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border was practically blocked as a makeshift cement wall came up there.Besides the makeshift wall on the highway, a small trench was also dug up earlier across an inner street a little off the highway and cement barricades put up on both the sides.

2. GHAZIPUR BORDER

The Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur looked no less than a police cantonment with hundreds of security personnel, including the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and Rapid Action Force (RAF), deployed on the spot.

Drones were being used to monitor the situation and vehicles checked as more support continued to flow in for the Bharatiya Kisan Union faction camping there from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Bird’s eye view shots of the location showed police deployment stretching over a long distance as well as several layers of barricading at the Ghazipur border.

Apart from the barricades, barbed wire has been installed to stop people moving on foot.

3. TIKRI BORDER

Meanwhile, at Tikri, multiple layers of barricades have been put up and nails cemented on the road to in a bid to prevent movement of vehicles.

Workers at the Tikri border said that they used iron rebars to act as nails so that if a vehicle tries to enter Delhi without proper permission, its tyres will be punctured.
Apart from this, huge blocks of cement had been placed near the Tikri protest site over the weekend which have now been filled with sand and cement to stop them from being dug up and removed.

Courtesy:India Today