Uneasy calm in Haryana's Hisar district

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An uneasy calm prevailed Thursday morning in Haryana's Hisar district, which saw violence during a Jat community agitation over the past two days leaving one youth dead and several injured.

Tensions ran high in the district as members of the Jat community, seeking quotas in government jobs, blocked the national highway to Delhi and railway tracks on Wednesday, a day after a youth was killed in police firing.

The youth, Sandeep, 20, was killed early Tuesday as police attempted to remove protesting Jats from the railway track near Ramayan and Mayyar villages in this district, 25 km from here.

Nearly 25 protestors were injured in the police action Tuesday. Of these, 10 were seriously injured and admitted to hospitals here and in Rohtak.

The police used tear-gas and cane-charged the protestors who were pelting stones at the them.

"We will not remove the body from here or cremate it till our Jat leaders, who were arrested, are released by the authorities. There is no dialogue taking place with the administration at this moment. Only after our leaders are freed, we will talk to the government," village headman Suresh said at Mayyar village.

The district administration, which had Wednesday asked the Army to step in after the Jat agitation took a violent turn, is keeping its fingers crossed on the situation.

However, army units had not been deployed on the ground till 8.30 am on Thursday. Police alleged that Jat protestors torched a police station and ransacked a bank near Hisar Cantt area on Wednesday.

The Jat leaders said that their agitation was a peaceful one and they had no role in the violence.

"We have been peacefully protesting. We have not even blocked any railway tracks or roads. The government has stopped plying trains on its own. We have no role in the violence," Suresh said.

Haryana police chief Ranjiv Dalal said Wednesday that more companies of paramilitary forces had been requisitioned to maintain law and order in the area.

"We will not spare the mischievous elements who indulged in violence," Dalal told reporters here.

The Jat community has been agitating for the last few days, seeking reservation in government jobs for the community in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

They blamed Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for going back on earlier promises and using delaying tactics and force to break up the Jat agitation.