Jat stir blocks roads to Haryana, impacts Delhi water supply

Toll rises to nine, more than 80 hurt, as agitation spreads to Gurgaon;

The agitation by Jat protesters took a turn for the worse, as they blocked roads and railway lines leading to Haryana from the Capital, Punjab and other neighbouring states.

Several parts of the state remained under curfew as the protests demanding Other Backward Classes (OBC) status for the Jat community entered the seventh day.

Eight people were reported to have been killed last night, as violence spread to Gurgaon despite the presence of Armed Forces, taking the overall toll to nine. More than 80 people are reported injured and hospitalised in institutions across the state.

Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat, and Gohana towns of Sonipat district are among the regions where curfew has been imposed. Agitators set an ATM on fire last night and destroyed official records of a cooperative bank in Loharu, Bhiwani district.

Insisting that there can be no talks "with a mob", Harayana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar urged the agitators to form a committee that would take their case to the state government. He also called upon them to put an end to the protests, claiming that the state government had accepted their demands.

Jat leaders, however, insisted that the protests would be called of only when the state agreed to grant OBC status to the community.

Meanwhile Delhi is reeling under a water crisis due to the agitation, forcing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to announce austerity measures to ease the situation.