New Delhi: Five farmers were injured when police in Punjab’s Moga resorted to lathicharge and used water canons when farmers protested outside a local grain market, the venue of Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s rally, on Thursday, The Tribune has reported.In the scuffle that broke out between protesting farmers and policemen, some cops were injured as well. While farmers said they were only protesting peacefully, police claimed that farmers had hurled stones at them. The turbans of both the farmers and some cops were tossed in the melee. According to police, at least 10 cars and a few other vehicles were damaged in the pandemonium.Expecting disruption to SAD’s rally on Thursday, policemen had, in fact, raided the houses of local farm activists on Wednesday night to detain them. This had further angered farmers resulting in them turning out in hordes on Thursday to the SAD rally venue to lodge their protest.Police claimed that their attempts to persuade farmers to leave the venue were not heeded to, resulting in the use of force to disrupt protestors. While the farmers maintained that they were there to demonstrate peacefully, police used water canons and lathis to turn them away from the venue.“We warned them several times. But some protesters resorted to the pelting of stones, after which police used force and a water canon to disperse them. They had also blocked the national highway near the spot which was later cleared,” Moga’s superintendent of police, Dhruman Nimbale, said, adding around 35 of the 600 odd protesters have been detained and the situation brought under control.Farmers said that police action would not deter them from holding further protests. “We will continue our protests with determination as the Akali leadership had supported the BJP to introduce the three controversial farm laws,” said Baldev Singh Zira, a farmers’ leader.