Fact Check: Yes, Protesting Farmers Held Posters In Support Of Activists Umar Khalid, Varavara Rao, Others

Farmers, under the banner of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, a body with over 200 farmers organisation, are protesting against the three Central farm laws in Delhi for the past 16 days.

In this context many people are sharing a picture of people holding placards of activists arrested in Bhima Koregaon case and Delhi riots accused; Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi and others with the claim that the protesting farmers are demanding the release of the activists.

This image is not from Shaheen Bagh.

This image is from on going farmers' protest where now the demand is to release the accused of Delhi riots and also the accused for alleged links with Naxals related to Bhima Koregaon violence. pic.twitter.com/bPfGV4cN4g

— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) December 10, 2020

The Logical Indian received requests to Fact Check the image.

Claim:

The farmers protesting in Delhi are also demanding the release of Human Rights activists and Delhi riots accused.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian did a reverse image search found the image in a report by Free Press Journal published on December 10, 2020. The report said, "In the ongoing farmers' protest, farmer union body--Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan)--demanded the release of writers, intellectuals, rationalists mainly arrested in Elgar Parishad and Delhi Riots case."

According to a report by Indian Express, farmers at Tikri border under the leadership of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan planned to stage a protest on International Human Rights Day, demanding the release of more than 20 human rights activists including, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, booked under the stringent UAPA

The Times Of India also tweeted the viral image with the caption, "BKU Ekta Ugrahan observing human rights day at Tikri border, want release of writers, intellectuals, rationalists mainly arrested in Elgar Parishad case Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varvara Rao, Anand Teltumbde and many others."

BKU Ekta Ugrahan observing human rights day at Tikri border, want release of writers, intellectuals, rationalists mainly arrested in Alghar Parishad case Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varvara Rao, Anand Teltumbde and many others pic.twitter.com/0uHpI2qLCP

— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) December 10, 2020

BKU Ekta Ugrahan had also shared images of the protest demanding the release of activists and Delhi riots accused, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi etc. on their Facebook page. The photos were captioned saying, "State President, Joginder Singh Ugraha, said that today's day is to provide the rights of human living, fighting for the betterment of life and to maintain the glory of humanity"

Thus, we could evidently say that on December 10, farmers under the banner of BKU Ekta Ugrahan staged a protest demanding the release of Delhi riots accused and activists accused of instigating violence in Bhimakoregaon.

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