Senior BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni said Sunday that a farmer who had been injured in the police lathicharge in Karnal on Saturday has died of a heart attack.

“Sushil Kajal, who owned one and a half acres of land, had been participating in the farmers’ agitation for the past nine months. He had suffered serious injuries in the police lathi charge at Karnal Toll Plaza yesterday and at night he succumbed to a heart attack… The farming community will always remember his sacrifice,” Chaduni said in a tweet on Sunday.

The Haryana Police had Saturday cracked down on farmers protesting in Karnal, leaving several injured in a lathi charge at the Bastara Toll Plaza on the national highway.

The farmers had been protesting against a BJP meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on the upcoming panchayat polls. Police detained several people using force to disperse a crowd that was blocking the highway in Karnal in the afternoon.

Condemning the police action, farm union leaders urged farmers across Haryana to protest on the roads. By evening, farmers blocked several stretches on the highway and toll plazas across the state, resulting in traffic snarls.

With farmers threatening to create more blockades in neighbouring states as well, vehicles were diverted via alternative routes. Later, however, the highways were reopened after police released the activists detained in Karnal.