By IANS
New Delhi : Sporadic street protests continued in and around the Indian capital Saturday with angry Gujjars taking to the streets and holding up rail and road traffic in support of their kinsmen in Rajasthan.
It was the fourth straight day of demonstrations here, and on Saturday the trouble spread to the interior from the suburbs when members of the community came out of their homes in Ashram area in south Delhi.
Thousands of Gujjars blocked roads and took out rallies also at Keshavpur area in the city's northwest and Bhajanpura in the northeast.
They burnt effigies of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and burnt tyres on the roads, hitting vehicular traffic.
But the police quickly moved in and brought the situation under control.
"There were minor protests in our area. There is nothing to worry as the situation is completely under control," said Sagar P. Hudda, additional deputy commissioner of police in northwest Delhi.
But at Dadri and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, adjoining east Delhi, violent mobs damaged railway tracks, severely affecting the rail traffic.
"Twenty-seven trains on the Delhi-Kanpur route have been affected," Vagesh Pandey, a railway spokesman, told IANS. "We are working on alternative routes to restore the affected train services."
The protests that originated May 29 in Rajasthan have now spilled onto Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.
The mass anger is directed against the Rajasthan government for having fired at Gujjar mobs, leaving nearly 20 people dead.
Five people were also killed and 20 injured Friday in clashes between Gujjars and Meenas in Rajasthan's Dausa and Karauli districts, taking the death toll to 25.
On Saturday, protestors blocked a highway in Sohana, 20 km away from Gurgaon, for a few hours and burnt tyres on roads.
The Gujjars in Rajasthan are demanding tribal status in a desperate bid to corner more government jobs and get preferential treatment in educational institutions.
"The situation is normal. We have deployed 300 paramilitary personnel along with our police force," Gurgaon Senior Superintendent of Police Hanif Quereshi said.
Protests also continued Saturday in Faridabad in Haryana and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.