A day-long stand-off between the police and farmer unions in Faridkot ended in a truce this evening, with farmers agreeing around 6.30 pm to defer their agitation until September 23 in view of the annual Baba Farid Festival in the town. The agreement came after more than 12 hours of police action, including efforts to prevent farmers from assembling and the detention of several union leaders and supporters across the district.The stand-off began in the early hours of Wednesday, when police, seeking to prevent farmers from across the state from converging on Faridkot for a Kisan Panchayat called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), placed several prominent farmer union leaders under house arrest. Security forces were deployed outside the residences of key union figures, including SKM (Non-Political) convener Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who was detained at his home in Dallewal village from the early hours of the morning.Despite the police cordon, Dallewal and a large number of his supporters managed to breach the barricades and reach Sadiq Chowk, a central point in Faridkot, by around 6 pm. The farmers blocked the chowk, signalling to the state government that the union would not bow to pressure.Soon after the farmers blocked the chowk, the district administration held discussions with senior state government officials and approached the protesters with a proposal to defer the agitation. The administration assured the farmers that their representatives would be given an opportunity to meet senior state authorities to discuss and resolve their demands.Farmer leaders accepted the proposal and agreed to suspend their agitation until September 23, the final day of Baba Farid Festival in the town.Strongly condemning the preventive action taken in the morning, Dallewal accused the state government of attempting to suppress a democratic protest through heavy-handed tactics.“The government thinks it can silence us by locking us inside our houses, but such coercive actions will not suppress the voice of the farmers. Our struggle for genuine rights will continue regardless of these state-sponsored barriers,” Dallewal said.Senior union leader Kaka Singh Kotra said the state government had been “on its heels” for the past 24 hours in an attempt to prevent the farmers from holding their Panchayat in Faridkot. He said the union had planned the meeting to chalk out a fresh strategy in response to what he described as the state government’s “stubborn attitude”.Kotra alleged that police had carried out a crackdown at the residences of farmer leaders across the state in the early hours of Wednesday to prevent them from reaching Faridkot. Despite the action, he said, farmers, including Dallewal, managed to reach Sadiq Chowk by 6 pm, sending a clear message that they would not bow to pressure or police force.Police officials, meanwhile, maintained that the preventive measures had been taken to maintain law and order and avert potential disruptions in the region.