CHANDIGARH: Fresh incidents of violence were today reported in Haryana as the Jat stir for quota intensified with protestors torching a railway station in Jind even as the Army conducted a flag march in two curfew-bound districts and used helicopters to reach parts of the blocked Rohtak district.
As the violence by Jat protestors demanding quota continued unabated, Chief Minister Manohar Khattar issued a fresh appeal to the people to maintain peace. Normal life was crippled in Rohtak, the epicentre of the ongoing agitation, and Bhiwani in the wake of violence which broke out yesterday during the stir, and many other parts of the state with rail and road traffic hit, and shops and commercial establishment and schools remaining closed.
The Army conducted flag march in Rohtak and Bhiwani today where curfew remained in force. The Army could not enter Rohtak through road as protesters had put up blockades on Delhi, Hisar, Rohtak, and Fazilka highways, forcing the authorities to air drop them, official said. As the protest intensified, some unidentified persons set on fire the Budha Khera Railway Station in Jind district this morning.
The furniture, record room and other articles were set on fire at the railway station, which falls in the Jind-Panipat rail section, police said. Sporadic incidents of violence and arson were reported at several places overnight despite authorities imposing curfew and issuing shoot at sight orders at Rohtak and Bhiwani besides prohibitory orders in Hisar, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal and Panipat. Haryana government had yesterday called the Army in nine districts while curfew was imposed in two districts along with shoot-at-sight orders after one person died and 25 were injured during the Jat stir for quota which turned violent with mobs resorting to widespread arson.