India police to probe protest 'toolkit' shared by Greta Thunberg

Updated 05 Feb, 2021

NEW DELHI: The creators of an Indian farmers' protest toolkit shared by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will be investigated by police, authorities said Thursday, saying it was designed to "encourage disaffection and ill-will" against the government.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of India's capital New Delhi since November, calling for a repeal of laws they fear will allow large corporations to crush them.

The tussle between the government and farmers protesting for more than two months against new agriculture laws deregulating the sector took at an international turn Tuesday when pop superstar Rihanna and Thunberg tweeted about the mass demonstrations.

The foreign ministry hit back on Wednesday, criticising "sensationalist social media hashtags and comments" by celebrities as "neither accurate nor responsible".

Police in the capital New Delhi, where a farmers' tractor rally last Tuesday turned into a deadly rampage where one person died and hundreds of police officers were injured, said they had filed a complaint against the toolkit's makers.

The complaint does not name Thunberg.

"Preliminary enquiry has revealed that the 'toolkit' in question appears to have been created by a pro-Khalistani Organisation 'Poetic Justice Foundation'," police said in a statement, citing Sikh separatists who want to create a homeland of Khalistan in India's northern Punjab state.

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