2 killed as violence mars Gujjar agitation

At least two persons were on Thursday killed , one of them in police firing, and 14 policemen injured as stray violence marred the Gujjars agitation in Delhi and Haryana where normal life was badly disrupted by a rail and road blockade enforced by the community members.
One person was killed when police opened fire on agitators who blocked traffic on national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district of Haryana for hours while an elderly man died in the stampede triggered by the police action.
"An elderly fellow died in the stampede during the agitation while another who sustained bullet injury also died", Haryana's Additional Director General of Police (law and order) V B Singh, who visited the spot, said.
He said some agitators were carrying arms and they too opened fire.
Singh said about 14 policemen were injured, three of them seriously, in the skirmishes with the agitators.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons.
Police earlier fired tear gas shells and charged with batons at the agitators.
Hitting the streets in large numbers in support of the ongoing agitation by their community members in Rajasthan demanding Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar protestors set afire a Haryana Roadways bus in Panipat and blocked movement of rail and vehicles in the national capital.
In Delhi, police lobbed teargas to dispers stone-pelting Gujjars in Mehrauli area and incidents of violence also occurred at Aya Nagar, bordering Gurgaon.