BJPleaders, who were taken hostage with family members by protesting farmers in ahouse in a Punjab town, were rescued early Monday by police after an over12-hour ordeal and with the intervention of the high court.
Rescuedleaders blamed the farmers for unlawful act in the pretext of protestingagainst the three farm laws enacted by the Central government. They blamed thestate Congress government for supporting the farmers.
Theincident occurred in Rajpura town, some 40 km from the state capital, wherestate general secretary Bhupesh Aggarwal was taken hostage along with others ina house on Sunday evening.
Aggarwaltold the media that he along with other party leaders and workers assembled inthe town a day earlier for a district-level party meeting at the Bharat VikasParishad building. The farmers reached the meeting venue and disrupted it.
Laterthey decided to hold a meeting in a house and they assembled there. The farmersreached there and held them hostage by snapping the water and electricitysupply.
Ina video on social media, protesters could be seen chasing and heckling localcouncillor Shanti Swarup and even tearing his clothes while he was being takenaway by policemen. This incident occurred on Sunday.
However,the police denied he was attacked. Apolice team led the Deputy Inspector General Vikramjit Duggal was at the spotto rescue and escort the hostage leaders to safety. The situation throughoutthe night remained tense.
Whenthe holed up leaders were rescued by the police they claimed that the farmerschased, abused and heckled them. Also their vehicles were pelted with stones.
However,farmer leader Prem Singh Bhangu blamed Aggarwal for provoking farmers by usingabusive language. He said the incident flared up when Aggarwal's bodyguardpointed a pistol at the peacefully protesting farmers.
TheBJP approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court late Sunday and sought itsintervention for the safety of its leaders.
Directingthe state to ensure the persons alleged to be illegally detained "areprovided safe exit with adequate security and no harm is caused to anyone ofthem", Justice Suvir Sehgal asked the state to summit the report on July12 at 2 p.m.
Reactingto attack on the party leaders, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma said:"This is an attack on democracy. There is complete lawlessness in Punjabas police have become mute spectators."
Thefarmers in Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against the farm laws asthey feel that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimumsupport price (MSP) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporateentities.
Theyare boycotting the BJP leaders too.
InOctober last, the vehicle in which BJP chief Ashwani Sharma was travelling wasattacked by 30-40 people with bricks and sticks near the toll plaza inHoshiarpur town.
Alsothe police fired tear gas shells and used water cannons in January to disperseprotesting farmers, who stormed the helipad and vandalised the stage whereHaryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was to address a 'kisanmahapanchayat' to highlight the benefits of Centre's agriculture laws.