Demands met, khaps clear railway track after 18 hours

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jind, July 30

After disrupting train traffic on the Bathinda-New Delhi track for 18 hours, protesters from various khaps today called off their protest and cleared the tracks after state BJP chief Subhash Barala and the local authorities accepted their demands.

The agitators had forced the cancellation of 26 trains on this route for compensation and a job to the family of Vikram Nain, who was killed on July 18 during a clash in Dharodi village.

DC Ajit Balaji Joshi and SP Abhishek Jorwal played an active role in convincing the khap leaders to clear the tracks. On July 18, the duo had stayed the night in Dharodi village to prevent the situation from taking an ugly turn.

“We have cleared the tracks as Barala and Joshi have accepted our three demands,” said Raghuvir Nain, a spokesman of Benain Khap.

Officials had been in touch with protesters since they started their protest last evening. Today, Barala called the peace committee members to Narwana guest house and said that they had accepted their all demands, including a job to the widow of Vikram, compensation and a thorough investigation in the case.

The matter has been solved. We understand that the family has lost their young son. The state would take all steps to provide justice to the aggrieved family,” Barala added.

Vikram was stabbed to death while Sadip was seriously injured and is admitted in a hospital. The police have arrested eight persons — sarpanch Mahinder Singh, his sons Sandip and Mandip, Kala, Sukhi Ram, Naresh Kumar, Daya Nand and Balvir Singh — under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC.