15 Die in India Protests of Jobs Plan
Crowds rampaged through northern Indian towns, and upper-caste students committed suicide Thursday, leaving up to 15 people dead, as rioters defied an appeal from Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh to end the protests over a jobs plan.
Indian news agencies reported 14 deaths, including five suicides, while in the capital, a policeman was shot to death. He was the first officer to be killed in the protests, a police spokesman said.
The protests have cost over 50 lives since Singh announced Aug. 7 that he planned to set aside half of government jobs for the bottom half of the Hindu social hierarchy.
Singh appealed on television Wednesday for student leaders to halt the suicides and talk to him. He said he would “take any step, consistent with the basic need for social justice,” to dispel their fears of unemployment. But he refused to bow to demands to scrap the jobs plan.
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