(Top) Gujjars dig up a railway track near Bharatpur district in Rajasthan; (Below) A police jeep burnt during the Gujjar violence. (Reuters)

May 24: At least 15 more people died today after cops opened fire to quell a Gujjar mob that stormed a police station and set it on fire as the violence over Scheduled Tribe status spread to several Rajasthan districts.

In Bayana, Bharatpur, Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla said he was ready to talk to the government but made it clear their agitation would continue till their demand was met.

SHO Bane Singh, officer in charge of the torched police station in Sikendra, Dausa district, told PTI police “had to open fire” after the agitators “stormed the police station and set it ablaze after overpowering the cops”.

The deaths pushed the toll up to at least 29 since clashes between the police and the protesters broke out yesterday.

Fourteen people were killed yesterday when the police opened fire on a Gujjar mob that had lynched a policeman in Bharatpur district.

“The situation is extremely tense and additional police force has been requisitioned,” Sikendra station house officer Singh said.

Eight hundred army personnel today joined the CRPF and the Rapid Action Force to restore law and order in violence-hit Dhumiria and Karwari villages in Bayana.

The agitation spread to new areas with fresh violence erupting at Nimkathana in Sikar district where the protesters torched a bus and damaged vehicles, the police said.

Gujjar mobs put up a roadblock at Beheror in Alwar district, hitting traffic between state capital Jaipur and Delhi, and stopped trains at Bandikuin, official reports said. Train services on the Mumbai-Delhi route were also disrupted with some trains being cancelled and others diverted.

An official spokesman said prohibitory orders have been clamped in eight districts — Jaipur, Bharatpur, Kota, Bundi, Dausa, Kaurali, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk and Dholpur — where Gujjars have a presence.

In Ajmer, the Gujjar Sangharsh Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation, took out a rally and burnt an effigy of chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.

State police chief A.S. Gill reached Bayana to hold talks with Bainsla, who said he was ready for talks with the government. “But till we receive the letter confirming ST status, we will keep up the agitation for an indefinite period,” he said as he squatted on rail tracks on the Mumbai-Delhi line with thousands of supporters.

Reports said a wanted dacoit, Jaggan Gujjar, and members of his gang visited Kherwadi and met members of the community.

Guns slung across their shoulders, Jaggan, said to be carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, and eight gang members, including a woman, visited the violence-scarred Bayana area, residents said.

Jaggan, who has influence in the Chambal ravines, is said to be active in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar and Dholpur districts.

A UNI report quoted state industries minister Digambar Singh as saying that miscreants had intruded in the Gujjar agitation and the government “could not show kind” gestures in such a situation.