Thousands of protesting Indian farmers facing off with security forces have come under the protection of the Nihang Sikhs, a warrior sect dating back to the 1600s distinguished by their ink-blue robes and ancient weapons such as swords and spears.
The farmers, who are also mainly Sikhs and who hail from the northern state of Punjab, are demanding higher prices for their crops and began marching to the capital, New Delhi, earlier this month to press their demands to the Indian government.
However, police have stopped the march about 200km from the capital, using water cannons and tear gas to disrupt the demonstration.
Photo: Reuters
The farmers on Wednesday said that they would stop their protest for two days after one of the demonstrators died.
Police officers confirmed the man died at a protest site, but added the cause of his death would only be determined by an autopsy.
As they waited for the march to resume, the Nihang warriors honed their skills by practicing fencing, horseback riding and meditating.
Easily distinguishable by their flowing robes and matching turbans, several Nihangs said that they joined the march to “protect” the farmers.
“Guru Gobind Singh has preached that Sikhs must always be ready to fight injustice and oppression,” said Sher Singh, one of the Nihangs, referring to the spiritual leader of the Sikhs.
“We have to be prepared if these protesters face any trouble even in the middle of the night,” he said.
India’s minority Sikh community makes up more than half of Punjab’s 30 million population, and the Nihangs took part in a similar, year-long farmers’ protest in 2021.
“Farmers are being oppressed... The government must not think that they can scare the farmers away ... this is Punjab and we are standing in solidarity with the farmers,” said Raja Ram Singh, another Nihang.
During the 2021 march, three Nihangs were arrested in connection with the murder of a Sikh man at one of the protest sites, who they accused of desecrating Sikh holy texts, according to local media reports.
The Nihangs did not deny the allegations, maintaining that the man had committed sacrilege by attacking their holy book, the reports added.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done