More than a dozen farmer leaders including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal were detained in Mohali Wednesday evening by Punjab Police while they were headed to the Shambhu border protest site after a meeting with a central delegation here, a farmer leader claimed.

Guramneet Singh Mangat also expressed concern Punjab Police may evict farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri border agitation sites where they have been camping in protest to press the Central government to accept their demands including a guaranteed Minimum Support Price for their crops.

The detention sparked a protest at the Khanauri border point where farmers raised slogans against the Punjab government and parked their tractor-trolleys on the road to "prevent police from evicting them".

The farmers were detained in Mohali as they were returning from a meeting here with a Central delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Mangat claimed heavy barricading was raised in Mohali to prevent the farmers from heading towards their respective destinations. And they were detained in Mohali as they entered the city from the Chandigarh side, he said.

The more-than-three-hour meting remained inconclusive and Agriculture Minister Chouhan said the talks would continue. "The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. The discussions took place in a positive and constructive manner. The talks will continue. The next meeting will take place on May 4," Chouhan said after the meeting.

The police action is being seen in the context of the unease among industrialists in Punjab who have been pointing towards heavy losses they have incurred because of the closure of the Shambhu and Khanauri border points.

Apart from Pandher and Dallewal, Abhimanyu Kohar, Kaka Singh Kotra and Manjit Singh Rai have been detained, farmer leader Mangat said, amid reports suggesting a heavy police force has been deployed near the two protest sites.

Some farmers protested the police action and scuffled with policemen.

Police personnel from various districts have been deployed near the Shambhu and Khanauri border points where the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are sitting in their protest since February last year.

Farmers said ambulances, buses, firefighting and anti-riot vehicles have been deployed near the protest sites.

Farmers at the Khanauri border point held a protest against police action, raising slogans against the Punjab government. They have parked their tractor-trolleys on the road to prevent police from evicting them.

After the meeting with the central delegation in Chandigarh, farmer leader Kaka Singh Kotra said heavy police deployment was made near the Shambhu and Khanauri border points.

He had expressed concern that police could evict protesters from the protest site at any time.

The protesting farmers have been camping at the Shambhu (Shambhu-Ambala) and Khanauri (Sangrur-Jind) border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year when their march to Delhi was thwarted by security forces.

Many opposition leaders lashed out at the AAP government over the police action to detain farmers.

Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi dubbed the detention of farmer leaders as an "attack" on the farming sector, and called the police action unfortunate.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema strongly condemned the detention of farmer leaders.

"This is highly undemocratic & illogical action and amounts to betrayal of the farm leaders. After the meeting, the Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan himself said that the next meeting will be on May 4," he said.

"So Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann must explain what happened after the meeting & who gave orders to arrest the leaders immediately on way back to their places? The state government has stabbed farm leaders in the back just to please their political mentors in Delhi. By doing so, the Bhagwant Mann led AAP government want to crush the farmers' agitation.

"It has exposed that Union government & Bhagwant Mann government are hand in glove with each other. The SAD demanded immediate release of all farm leaders without delay," said Cheema in a post on X.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.