Farmers closely monitor Punjab police officers escorting Shubhkaran Singh’s corpse out of fear of foul play

Hundreds of farmers have been manning the body of 22-year-old Shubhkaran Singh at the Government Rajindra Hospital morgue in Patiala after a violent confrontation with Haryana police. Farmers were afraid that the Punjab Police may obtain a postmortem or give the corpse to their Haryana colleagues. However, officials were concerned that the farmers may remove the corpse and hold a dharna at any of the borders close to Haryana, so they stationed up to 100 police officers on a round-the-clock watch to secure the morgue.

Farmers have been watching all hospital entrances closely for the last three days. An agricultural union representative remarked, “Our volunteers are here at the hospital to keep an eye on proceedings because the police can do anything and we cannot take chances.”

“We have been asked not to allow farmers inside the premises,” said one of the on-duty police officers. Even though everything seems calm, we are under tight instructions to notify superiors right away if anything unpleasant happens close to the morgue where Shubhkaran’s corpse has been maintained.

There was nothing that the Punjab government or the police department could do, according to sources, since the negotiations with the farmer unions had come to a standstill. “We know exactly where we stand. We are prepared to wait a month or more, FIR and cremation not included. We will continue to peacefully demonstrate at the Shambhu and Khanauri barriers. The government of Haryana is the one that transformed the obstacles into boundaries and prevented demonstrators from reaching Delhi in a nonviolent manner. Afterwards, they murdered Shubhkaran by firing at us. According to a farmer leader, the Punjab government is now hesitant to file a formal complaint.

“Only talks and discussion can resolve this issue, but the farmer unions are adamant without bothering about the laws,” a top IPS official stated. It is not within our authority to file a FIR. We are required to abide by the established guidelines. Until the farmer union leaders debate the matter without any predetermined conditions, there isn’t much we can do. Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa visited wounded farmers at the hospital earlier today and called for harsh punishment for Haryana police officers. He said that “CM Bhagwant Mann should stand by the farmers.”