 JODHPUR, India (AFP)
Week’s toll 17
Four more people have died in clashes between an ethnic group demanding
more government aid and police in northern India, bringing the death
toll this week to 17, officials said yesterday.
Police yesterday shot dead two protesters belonging to the Gujjar
community in Rajasthan state’s Sawaimadhopur district after a police
station was set ablaze, police inspector-general Ajit Singh said.
“Police opened fire after a huge mob went around torching government
buildings and vehicles in the district’s Boli town,” Singh said by
telephone from the state capital Jaipur. Another protester died
overnight when police opened fire, while a fourth died of bullet wounds
sustained on Tuesday when the Gujjar shepherd community went on a
rampage. A total of 17 people including at least two policemen have
died in the violence and more than 100 been injured in the desert state
bordering the Indian capital.
Talks between state officials and ethnic leaders failed to quell the
protests. Some 20 vehicles were torched as the violence spiralled
yesterday. “The situation is not yet under control. We are in talks
with those who are demonstrating for reservations,” State Home Minister
Gulab Chand Kataria said.
The Gujjars want to be included among the “scheduled castes,” India’s
socially and economically weakest communities for whom state aid and
jobs are “reserved.” The trouble spread
to the Indian capital Thursday with Gujjar men and women blocking busy
intersections and pelting rocks at private vehicles, a police spokesman
said in New Delhi.
Gujjars, who have a large presence in the national capital, were
demonstrating against police gunfire in Rajasthan. “Stop the butchery,”
the protesters screamed at a blocked flyover in eastern Delhi.
They also blocked Rajasthan’s main highway linking Jaipur to New Delhi
and the Taj Mahal town of Agra. Approximately 10 trains linking Jaipur
with Delhi and Agra — India’s “golden triangle” for tourism — were also
cancelled. In an army show of strength, heavily-armed troops rode
military trucks through deserted highways in the area, officials said.
The unrest prompted the US embassy in India to issue a travel warning
to its citizens. “Several important highways in the state of Rajasthan
have been closed due to ongoing riots by Gujjars, an ethnic group
protesting against exclusion from certain government benefits,” said a
US embassy statement. “American citizens planning travel to and from
Jaipur and nearby areas in eastern Rajasthan are advised to postpone
travel by road until order is established by Indian authorities.”
Gujjars make up some six million of Rajasthan’s 55 million population
and are the dominant community in nine of the state’s 32 districts.
Last update on: 1-6-2007 |