Jalandhar, June 05: At least 12 people were injured and four vehicles set on fire as members of Jat Sikh community and Dalits clashed at two places in Punjab's Jalandhar district tonight prompting authorities to clamp curfew at a village, police said here. Members of the two communities clashed at Talhan village when a group of Dalit youth allegedly intruded in a fair organized by the Jat community.

The clash left at least ten people, including four cops, injured and a vehicle was burnt, police sources said.

The police resorted to lathicharge and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the mob.

The Jats allegedly took out swords and lathis, the sources said, adding at least seven houses of Dalits near the fair site were vandalised.

The trouble spread to Buta Mandi on the outskirts of Jalandhar city when Dalits took to the streets on hearing of the violence in Talhan and set on fire a bus of Himachal Road Transport Corporation, a fire tender, which had rushed to the spot to douse flames of the bus, and a motor cycle besides smashing a car.

Bureau Report