Two die in police action in Bhiwani village

BHIWANI: Two people were killed and several others injured, four of them seriously, when police opened fire on villagers protesting against police inaction in a case of two missing youths in Bhiwani district of Haryana on Thursday.
In Kharak village, about 21 km from here, residents had laid siege to Bhiwani-Delhi road. As the police tried to pacify them, the news of the bodies of youths having been found in a Jhajjar village came in.Angry, the villagers resorted to pelting stones at cops. They also torched two gypsies and damaged two Haryana roadways buses. The police retaliated by caning them and then opening fire.
Sandeep, 18, and Virender, 28, died on their way to hospital in Rohtak. The authorities had, however, not confirmed the deaths till late in the evening. "The victims had received bullet injuries in the abdomen,'' said Ram Avtar, a villager. "Four other villagers, who, too, sustained serious injuries have been rushed to Rohtak,'' he added.
"We had to use tear gas shells and lathis to disperse the rampaging crowd,'' deputy commissioner Mohammed Shayin said. "As many as 15 policemen, including SP Sanjay Kumar and DSP Ram Avtar, were injured when villagers resorted to pelting stones,'' he claimed.
Gajender and Shiv Kumar, both in their 20s, who had gone missing from Chhuchakwas village in Jhajjar where they had gone to attend a wedding on December 15. While the marriage party returned home the next day, the two did not. Police were informed even as the villagers tried to trace the missing youngsters on their own. On Thursday, around 9 am, they blocked the highway to stir the cops into action. While they were at it, came the news of the youths' bodies being found in Jhajjar village.