Farmers faced water cannons and broke police barriers at the state's border with Haryana as they pushed towards the national capital Thursday in their Delhi Chalo march against the Centre's farm laws.
At the Shambhu border, the Haryana Police and protesters in their tractor-trolleys faced each other off on a bridge over the Ghaggar River.
Police made announcements on loudspeakers to ask the farmers assembled on the Punjab side of the interstate border to disperse. As smoke from teargas shells clouded the air and security personnel milled around, people could be seen standing on top of trucks.
The Haryana Police had blocked the Amritsar-Delhi highway at this border point with trucks to stop the farmers' tractor-trolleys, some of them laden with food.
Farmers chucked some barricades into the river. They were also seen pushing the trucks.
A few protesters initially managed to cross the barricades on foot. Later, police eased the blockade, allowing the protesters and their tractors to proceed on the road to Delhi, 200 kilometers away.
But police barricades were also set up at other points on the highway as it passes through BJP-run Haryana. At Karnal, there was another face-off with police.
"It is condemnable that Haryana Police is using such measures to suppress an assembly of peaceful protesters. We are protesting in a peaceful manner, but they want to prevent us from using our democratic right to protest," a Punjab farmer told reporters at Shambhu.
The Haryana Police had placed boulders, barricades and parked trucks at multiple border points with Punjab, the Congress-ruled state which is backing the farmers' cause. But most barricades were lifted a few hours later.
Apart from Shambhu, police used water cannons against protesters trying to enter Kaithal district, and at Khanauri border where farmers are protesting under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugarhan).
Union president Joginder Singh said they will hold a peaceful protest there for seven days.
