M A I N   N E W S

Gujjar Protest
15 die in Bharatpur police firing
Army called in; Judicial probe ordered

Bharatpur/Jaipur, May 23
At least 15 persons, including a policeman, were today killed as members of the Gujjar community, demanding Scheduled Caste status for themselves, clashed with the police at Bayana in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district, after which the Army was deployed in the area.

The Rajasthan government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the police firing. The probe will be conducted by Fateh Chand Bansal, a retired Rajasthan High Court Judge, an official spokesman here said.

The police opened fire when the protesters torched two police jeeps and clashed with it in the Karwar area in Bayana block of the district. A policeman was lynched by the mob. The mob pelted the police with stones and did not disperse even after the police lobbed teargas shells, principal home secretary V.S. Singh said in Jaipur.

The clashes broke out as protesters gathered this morning at Dumariya in support of a ‘rail roko’ call given by Rajasthan Gujjar Arakashan Sangarsh Samiti leader Bainsla to press for granting the Scheduled Caste status to Gujjars.

Ten columns of the Army (about 2,000 troops), about 200 additional Rapid Action Force (RAF) and 300 CRPF personnel were called out for deployment in the violence-hit area to assist the local administration in maintaining law and order, an official release said.

The Rajasthan government ordered a judicial probe into the police firing.

Four companies of the RAF had already been deployed in sensitive areas of Bharatpur, the release said.

The protesters began a dharna on the railway track on the Songar bridge, near Dumaria railway station, while the police force was guarding the track, the SP, who is monitoring the situation since morning, told PTI.

Once the police and the RAF personnel withdrew from the scene of violence, the Gujjar protesters uprooted rail track along a three-km length.

Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said the police first lobbed teargas shells, fired 80 rubber bullets and then opened fire in air to disperse thousands of protesters, who pelted the police with stones and lynched policeman Bhola Ram. “The situation is tense there”, Kataria said.

A group of Gujjar youths also attempted to stop traffic by putting up blockades on the Jaipur-Bikaner highway, near Sikar, about 250 km from here, the police said. It added the protesters were dispersed and the blockades removed.

Today’s violence came a week ahead of the first anniversary of the police firing on Gujjar agitators in the state and subsequent violence that claimed 26 lives.

Concerned over Gujjar violence in Rajasthan, the Centre today asked neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and the national Capital, which have a sizable Gujjar population, to maintain a strict vigil to prevent any backlash of the incidents in Bharatpur.

The Centre also sent nearly 700 personnel of the Rapid Action Force and the CRPF to Bharatpur district.

Bainsla, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the district authorities in Karauli, has gone into hiding, official sources said.

Kataria said he had requested Bainsla to call off the agitation as the government was seriously considering the samiti’s demands.

“If possible we will arrest him,” he said when asked why Bainsla was free despite an arrest warrant. At least five trains were cancelled in view of the agitation, while four trains were terminated at the nearest railway stations, according to a Railways statement in Jaipur.

Official sources said the authorities had promulgated prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and 3,000 security men were deployed in four Gujjar-dominated Bharatpur, Dausa, Karauli and Sawaimadhopur districts. Senior administrative and police officials have gone to Bayana and Hindon city of Bharatpur district. State DGP A.S. Gill is already at Bayana. — PTI