Members of the Gujjar Community protesting against police action on Gujjars in Rajasthan who are demanding reservation under ST Category at Khajuri Chowk, in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma.

Jaipur, May 31 (PTI): Rajasthan continued to simmer today over the Scheduled Tribe inclusion demand by Gujjars, who indulged in arson, stone pelting and clashed with police in many areas, leaving one more agitator dead.

With the death of one more protestor in police firing in Paniyala village in Jaipur's Kotputali block last night, the toll in the agitation has climbed to 16, a senior police official said today.

The agitation continued to paralyse normal life across the state and road blocks across state highways brought vehicular traffic to a grind. Security was stepped up in the state with hundreds of army personnel deployed along the highways.

Violence continued to be reported in many parts of the state with people in Gujjars-dominated belt of Kotputali turning violent and indulged in pitched battle with additional forces leading to police firing after incidents of large-scale arson and destruction of vehicles, the official said.

Six army columns comprising 600 army personnel have been deployed along the National Highway 8 from Chandwaji to behror on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway and also covering Dausa and Kotputali, Additional DGP Navdeep Singh said.

Four each columns of army were deployed in Dholpur and Bundi, Singh said, adding army jawans are guarding the highway and monitoring traffic wherever it is moving.

Protesters also set ablaze a police post near Vigyan Nagar, and indulged in arson near railway station in Kota, organised widespread bandh in Ajmer, Pushkar, Alwar, Bharatpur, Chittorgarh, Tonk, Kota, and parts of outskirt of Jaipur.

In Jaipur, police detained up to 300 youths attempting to put blockades and threw stones on vehicles on Sikar-Chomu and Jaipur-Tonk routes.

Agitators also damaged a railway singal, set on fire railway station's rooms, and burnt used tyres on the track at Malarna-Dungari station in Sawaimadhopur district, a senior police official said, adding they also removed a small portion of rail track at Bonli village.

Two columns of army was deployed in parts of Sawaimadhopur and Gangapur city, he said.

Stray incidents of arson at public places including bus and railway stations reported from Chittorgarh, Jhalawar, Ajmer, Ramganjmandi, Bhilwara, Itawa, and Dholpur cities, an official spokesman at police headquarters said.

Dausa, Kotputali, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Kota and outskirts of Jaipur observed bandh on a call given by Gujjar Arakashan Manch.

A total of 16 people have been killed in the agitation. Of these, seven each were killed in Bundi and Dausa-Karauli districts, one each in Bayana and Kotputali. However, unofficial death toll has been put at 18.

Attendances in government and private offices in the state capital was un-affected.

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