Haryana cut off from Delhi as Jat protesters block major highways

After several days of GT Road not being affected by Jats agitating for reservation, the protesters blocked the National Highway 1 at several points near Sonepat on Saturday.

After several days of GT Road not being affected by Jats agitating for reservation, the protesters have finally blocked even the National Highway 1 at several points near Sonepat on Saturday.

Commuters were unable to travel as the agitators blocked the stretch from Singhu border till GT Karnal Road. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

Virtually tens of thousands of road users were stranded since Sunday morning as the protesters set up the blockades by diagonally parking vehicles or using trees staring around 10am. Though there were said to be more than half a dozen points, the major blockades were put up near Nangal, Murthal and Kundali villages.

With this, the movement of all types of vehicles, including buses, came to a standstill on both sides, virtually cutting off Haryana and the neighbouring states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir from the national capital via what is considered to be a historically important road of all of South Asia.

Haryana Roadways also put a complete halt to all its buses in Panipat, Sonepat, Hisar, Jind, Narnaul, while Rohtak, Jhajjar and Bhiwani had already been under curfew since Friday. Though the police and a few units of the army had reached the spots, there was no action for want of strength.

Watch | How people of Haryana suffered during Jat quota agitation

Admitting it, the director general of police, YP Singal, said more army and paramilitary forces were being airlifted to these spots and dialogue with the protesters was on. “Since the force could not be rushed to the spots by road (that are dug up or blocked), some units are being airlifted and are on the way,” he informed Hindustan Times on Sunday afternoon.

Back on the spots, according to available information here, utter chaos prevailed as the protesters had also deflated the tyres of heavy vehicles, which would mean that removing them and restoring traffic on the highway would be an uphill task.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government continued to parrot that it was trying its best to dissuade the protesters from the agitation through dialogue.