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| India-Pakistan |
| Shoot-on-sight orders in Haryana as 10 dead following caste violence flare-up |
| 2016-02-22 |
| [DAWN] Ten people have died in caste protests which triggered widespread arson and looting in a north Indian state, police said Sunday, as New Delhi faced a water crisis after mobs shut down a key supply. Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders were deployed on Saturday in Haryana state, a day after week-long protests turned violent with rioters setting fire to homes and railway stations and blocking highways. Ten people have been killed and about 150 injured in the state since Friday when officers fired on rioters, Haryana police chief Yash Pal Singal told a presser, updating earlier estimates of five dead. Television images showed mobs wielding sticks rampaging through the streets in Haryana state, setting fire to a local government minister's house and railway stations, damaging train tracks and blocking two key highways. "There were festivities during the night across the district. Over a dozen buildings were set on fire by protesters, with incidents of looting of shops and ATMs at two places," an officer said on condition of anonymity. A local police officer in Jhajjar, whose district borders that of Rohtak, earlier told AFP that five people were killed on Saturday "when the army opened fire on a mob". A week-long protest by members of the state's dominant Jat caste, who are demanding quotas for government jobs and in education, turned violent on Friday as police fired on protesters. India sets aside a proportion of jobs and educational places to people from so-called lower and backward castes -- measures intended to bring victims of the worst discrimination into the mainstream. The Jats, a comparatively affluent group, want the same special allowances to put them on an equal footing with lower castes. The Jats make up 29 per cent of Haryana's population and are traditionally a farming community. The latest protests echo caste violence that swept the western state of Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... in August last year, leaving several dead. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 The razor wire was 'step one' but it failed. Step two appears to be working. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-02-22 09:54 |
| #2 "Brown lives Matter!" |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2016-02-22 09:18 |
| #1 Quotas huh? Where have I heard that before? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-02-22 07:42 |