Bathinda, Feb. 8 -- The Bathinda district police on Friday registered five cases against more than 2,000 unidentified protesters belonging to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) for blocking a national highway and allegedly taking a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) hostage. District police authorities did not disclose the exact sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and other laws invoked in the cases. Superintendent of police (City) Narinder Singh filed two first information reports (FIRs), each registered at the cantonment and Sadar Rampura police stations, while another case was registered at Sadar Bathinda police station. The SP said video footage and photographic evidence were being analysed to identify protesters who allegedly broke through police barricades and blocked National Highway-7. He said the leadership of the Ekta Ugrahan faction was mounting pressure on the district administration to secure the release of two of its activists currently lodged in jail. "They were told that the issue of the release of the duo from prison is under the jurisdiction of the court, and that neither the civil administration nor the police has any role in it. As they chose to ignore the points and called its cadre to assemble in Bathinda to lay siege to the district administrative complex (DAC) indefinitely, the authorities blocked the movement of the mob," the SP added....