6 More Killed in India Caste Strife
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NEW DELHI — At least six people were killed and several others tried to burn themselves to death today in spreading violence across northern India over a government plan to reserve more jobs for low-caste Hindus.
Police shot three people dead and injured about a dozen others in the northern town of Jammu, and the army was called out to enforce an indefinite curfew, officials there said.
Another three people were killed and 25 injured when police fired on anti-quota protesters near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh state, the United News of India news agency said.
Many of the protesters are students, most of whom belong to the privileged higher classes.
A 13-year-old schoolboy, Chetan Gautam, in New Delhi was among seven youths who set themselves ablaze or tried to do so today in protest against the plan to increase the number of government jobs reserved for people at the bottom end of the Hindu social hierarchy.
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