Forty-year-old farmer from Singhu border missing since Sep 22

By Praveen Dwivedi

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) A 40-year-old farmer, a native of Ludhiana in Punjab who had been camping at Singhu border along with scores of other farmers protesting against the three new farm laws, has been missing since September 22.

Gurdeep Singh had been visiting and staying at the protest site at Singhu for the last several weeks. He left for Ludhiana at 12.30 p.m. on September 22 but never reached his home, the complaint filed on Monday at Kundli police station (copy available with IANS) said.

After failing to get any information about Gurdeep's whereabouts since he left Delhi a week ago, his uncle Shamsher Singh, who is also at Singhu, lodged the missing complaint at Kundli police station which falls under Sonepat district of Haryana and is very near the farmers' protest site.

In his complaint, Shamsher Singh has mentioned that Gurdeep is 'slightly mentally disturbed'. He had come to Singhu to join the protest with him (Shamsher Singh), but he left for home alone.

"He did not even reach the village. We spoke to several relatives and friends to know if he had visited any of them, but he did not. I suspect he has been kidnapped by someone. Subsequently, I decided to file a missing person complaint here at Kundli itself," Shamsher Singh told IANS.

Raghuveer Singh, a member of Ludhiana based Kirti Kisan Union, under whose leadership Gurdeep Singh and many other farmers came to join the protest at Delhi, said, "It was the third time Gurdeep came here (Singhu) and left for home in the last eight months. But this time, he did not reach home. Family members, relatives and we all are trying to find him but are unable to get any clue about his whereabouts."

Kundli police said they have launched a search operation in nearby areas and have also sent messages to Ludhiana police to trace Gurdeep Singh. "We have conducted a search operation in our jurisdiction. We are also in touch with Ludhiana police in this matter and we are hopeful that he will be traced as soon as possible," said the investigating officer of the case.

It has been over ten months since thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against the three farm bills passed last year.

On Monday on the Bharat Bandh day, a 55-year-old farmer died of cardiac arrest at Singhu. At the Singhu border, there were a large number of tractor-trolleys parked but there were relatively very few people. This is one of the places where farmers have been sitting on protest since November 2020.

Apart from Singhu, farmers are also protesting at two other borders of the national capital - Tikri and Ghazipur.