Farmers’ protest: Two Haryana farmers die in unrelated incidents at border protest sites

Two farmers from Haryana died in unrelated incidents at the Singhu and the Tikri border protest sites on Delhi borders, police said on Tuesday.

Harinder (50) died of possible heart attack at the Singhu border, while Deepak (28) succumbed to head injuries he received after falling off a tractor-trolley at the Tikri border, they said.

Harinder, from Panipat's Siwah village, was found motionless this morning near the Singhu border protest site, a Sonipat Police official said.

"He was found dead and it is suspected that he died of a heart attack. However, once the postmortem report comes the exact cause of death will be known," he said.

Deepak, who was from Haryan's Rohtak district and was providing voluntary services at Tikri border protest site, died after sustaining serious head injuries when he fell off a tractor-trolley, police said on Tuesday.

Deepak was hospitalised at PGIMS, Rohtak, where he died Monday during treatment, Jhajjar district's Aasoda Police Station SHO Kuldeep Singh said over the phone.

"Deepak was sitting in the tractor-trolley and distributing ration (to farmers sitting in protest at Tikri). He fell down and sustained head injuries. He died during treatment at PGIMS Rohtak, the officer added.

He said the accident took place at Bahadurgarh bypass road on February 5.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting since late November at Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporations.

However, the Centre has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.