After staging a day-long dharna near the Shambhu toll barrier on the Ghaggar river, the inter-state boundary between Punjab and Haryana, members of the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha (QIM), Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) called off their protest on Friday evening. The decision came after a meeting with senior Union Home Ministry bureaucrat Prashant S Lokhande, who assured the leaders that their memorandum seeking the release of long-incarcerated Sikh prisoners would be forwarded to the Centre.

The protesters had earlier planned to march to the national capital to hand over the memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They had also declared that if stopped by security forces, they would stage a sit-in on the spot. Heavy barricading and restrictions were put in place by H

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