Buzz about Sidhu Moosewala’s father contesting from Bathinda as Independent candidate
Mumbai, June 22
The Maharashtra Police on Thursday used pellet guns to fire at farmers who were protesting the construction of a boundary wall around an abandoned World War II airport on the outskirts of Mumbai.
According to the state police, several hundred farmers who have been cultivating land inside an abandoned World War II airbase at Nevali near Kalyan on the outskirts of Mumbai resorted to violence this morning.
At least 12 policemen received injuries as the farmers torched several vehicles on the Thane-Badlapur highway, police said.
With the local police unable to contain the crowd, the administration rushed in riot police who fired several rounds from pellet guns, similar to the ones used by security forces in Kashmir, at the protesting farmers.
At least four of the protesters received injuries on the upper bodies from the pellets, police said.
Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh later told reporters that cases of rioting would be registered against the villagers who received injuries from pellet guns.
According to sources, farmers who originally owned the land had cut the fencing around the property decades ago and resumed agriculture.
The Maharashtra Government had considered constructing a full-fledged airport where the air-strip once stood.
However this has been opposed by farmers for years and the matter is in the court.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the Defence Ministry said the land on which the abandoned air-strip stood belonged to the Indian Navy.
The naval authorities said the land records showed the property in the name of the Defence Estate Officer, Mumbai under the Ministry of Defence.
The land was acquired under Defence of India rules by the erstwhile British government in 1943.
However since the property was not fenced, the original owners of the 1600 acre land resumed agricultural activities several decades ago.
Heirs of the original farmers have now challenged the acquisition order before the Bombay High Court.
The petitions have challenged the validity of the requisition order.
