Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) demanded Punjab government to release arrested formers.
Police had detained hundreds of KPI farmers across the province of Punjab to staged a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly.
Punjab’s farmers had announced a peaceful demonstration against anti-farmer policies of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in the centre and Punjab.
However, fearing a huge protest in the provincial capital a day later, the Punjab police had arrested a huge number of farmers and peasants in a province-wide crackdown
On Wednesday, stunned and an enraged mob of farmers armed with canes and sugarcane sticks and carrying placards, blocked several roads for traffic in Lahore.
Skirmishes between the farmers and motorists also occurred over the long blockade of several roads after the provincial authorities blocked the main and linking roads in the city.
Earlier today, the farmers gave the Punjab government a 4:00 pm deadline to release the detained farmers.
The members of PKI also threatened to block the entire walled city if their demands that the government does amendments in its policies for farmers and release the detained farmers within the given deadline were not met.
Meanwhile, several activists of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who also announced to join the PKI demonstration on the orders of party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today were also arrested.
Reacting to the chaotic situation in Punjab, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked the government to respect farmers’ democratic rights to protest and insisted that it must not deal with them as if they were terrorists. (PhotoNews / ARY News)
