Hisar (Har): One person was killed and several others injured as police opened fire on protesters demanding quota for Jat community under OBC category who later went on a rampage, damaging vehicles and rail track and vandalising public property at Mayyar village on Monday.
The activists belonging to 'Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti' had blocked the road traffic on Hisar-Delhi highway, 15 kms from here. Police tried to disperse the protesters but when they resisted the security personnel lobbed tear gas shells and opened fire in which one person identified as Sunil Lamba (22) of Ladwa village and over a dozen people were injured, sources said.
The agitators then when on a rampage and vandalised public property, including a Haryana roadways bus. They attacked a fire tender and some private vehicles, police said adding that they also ransacked the Mayyar village railway station and damaged the rail track forcing railway authorities to cancel trains on Rewari-Bathinda and Jaipur-Hisar section of railways.
The mob also set afire a petrol pump and also damaged a truck and two jeeps, police said.
Top police and civil administration officials have reached the area. The situation is tense, but under control, police said. No arrest has been made so far. Jat, a dominant class in Haryana, have been demanding that they should be included in the list of OBC.
Meanwhile, agitated residents of Ladwa village forcibly took away the body of Lamba kept in a mortury of the civil hospital. The Delhi-Hisar national highway remained blocked by protesters forcing authorities to divert the traffic.
A police spokesman said here that several policemen including Hisar Superintendent of Police Subhash Yadav were injured in the clashes with the protesters who indulged in heavy stone pelting.
"A mob attacked the vehicles and put them on fire, damaged a bank and indulged in heavy stone pelting on police personnel," the spokesman said. He said that while exercising restrain, the police dispersed the unruly mob by resorting to lathicharge and use of teargas. The spokesman appealed to the people not to take the law into their hands or instigate others by delivering provocative speeches.
"The police is duty bound to maintain law and order and protect public property at all cost," he added. PTI
