Gujjars paralyse Delhi

At least two persons were killed, one of them in police firing, and 14 security personnel injured in violent clashes between Gujjar demonstrators and the security forces in Delhi and Haryana on Thursday. The Gujjars took over the areas bordering the national capital and paralysed rail and road traffic, completely disrupting normal life till late in the afternoon.

One person was killed when the police opened fire on agitators, blocking traffic on the national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district, while the other died in a stampede reportedly triggered by the police action at Samalkha in Haryana. State chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons.

On the war path over their demand for Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar community, observing "martyrs' day", poured into the national capital region since the early hours of the morning and blocked major roads leading to New Delhi. The security forces resorted to lathicharges, lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse violent mobs at Mehrauli, Mathura Road, Gazaipur and Anand Vihar, among other areas. Nearly 110 agitators were detained by the police.

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