With the ongoing Jat agitation escalating and turning violent claiming three lives and leaving more than 30 people injured in Haryana on Friday, Army was called out in nine districts of the State and curfew imposed on Rohtak and Bhiwani city areas. Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued in the curfew-bound areas.
The Centre rushed 3,300 personnel of paramilitary forces as Jat protesters, demanding reservation under Economically Backward Classes, resorted to widespread arson and took some police personnel captive, besides going on rampage at many places, including Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Hansi. The protesters also attacked police and private vehicles, a Minister’s house, and two toll plazas at Hansi in Hissar district and near Rohtak, both located on the Delhi-Hisar-Fazilka National Highway.
Army units were called out from nearby cantonment at Hissar and were deployed immediately in Rohtak and Bhiwani areas. The Army
will assist the civil administration in restoring law and order in the State.
Three protesters were killed in Rohtak when the BSF personnel opened fire in “self-defence” after someone from the rampaging mob fired at and injured a BSF jawan, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal told a Press conference in Chandigarh. “The mob also vandalised the house of State Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu in Rohtak. They pelted stones on the house besides attempting to set it on fire,” he said.
Following this, the security outside the houses of Minister and MlAs has been stepped up across Haryana. The DGP added that orders have been issued to jam social networking sites.
The protesters also vandalised Kaithal’s house of BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini.
With Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat remaining worst-affected districts due to the agitation, two senior civil and police officers — Principal Secretary (Home) AK Singh and ADGP of the Haryana Police BS Sandhu — rushed to Rohtak to coordinate with the Army and the civil administration to restore normalcy in these districts. AK Singh was empowered to concurrently exercise all the powers available to a District Magistrate.
Following the deteriorating law and order situation, the Haryana Government was also forced to requisition the Army in districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Panipat, Bhiwani, Jind, Hisar and Kaithal in the State. Also, a request to call 30 companies of paramilitary forces was made by the State Government with the Centre.
The protests disrupted road and rail traffic, with the worst hit being the Rohtak-Jhajjar region, the epicentre of the protests, besides Bhiwani, Sonipat and Hisar.
In view of the blockades, Haryana Roadways has also suspended bus services on many affected routes. Educational institutes remained closed in many place on the sixth day of the agitation.
The agitation also affected supplies of essential commodities like milk, vegetables, lPG and petroleum products in several parts of the State.
Sources said a police post was set ablaze at Dighal in Jhajjar. In Jind district, protesters, including women, took control of two railway stations on the Delhi-Ferozepur railway track. In Bhiwani, non-Jat organisation and Jat community clashed injuring more than a dozen people.
Earlier in the day, the Punjab & Haryana High Court asked the Manohar lal Khattar Government to file a status report on the law and order situatio.
In the agrarian milieu of Haryana, Jats come across as dominant community with over 26 per cent of State’s electorate. With a non-Jat leader as its head, the incumbent BJP Government in Haryana remained in a fix about how to pacify the agitating Jat community in the State.
The Supreme Court had in March 2015 quashed the decision of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre to provide reservation to Jats under OBC category. Another expected setback to the Jats came in the form of order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in July 2015 which stayed the decision of the previous Hooda Government to grant 10 per cent reservation to Jats, Jat-Sikhs, Bishnois, Rors and Tyagis under the special backward classes (SBC) category.
The Haryana Government has now filed a Special leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the stay order of Punjab & Haryana High Court.