By Deepak
(The author does not want to give his full name as he is still trapped inside his house in Rohtak. He lives on road to Jhajjar.)
Rohtak: I was born and brought up here. I never left this beautiful town looking for better jobs in Delhi, which is just an hour's drive. Life had always been good here. We had some occasional disturbances. But, by and large Rohtak and it's neighborhood had been peaceful.
What is now happening in the name of Jat agitation is horrible. We have never seen anything like this. The city of Rohtak is in ruins. The old market is destroyed. The new shopping malls, buildings, hotels, educational institutions which came up during the 10 years rule of BS Hooda have also been severely damaged by the mob. Some malls have been stripped off everything.
The leaderless agitation is full of criminals who have unleashed a reign of terror in the name of agitators and quota agitation. The jobless youth and other petty criminals have joined the agitation, looting and terrorising the people.
The state administration seems to have disappeared from the scene. They have abdicated their constitutional responsibility, law and order has completely collapsed. The police have fled fearing for their own lives. Many police stations have been locked and some been have damaged.
Me and many of my neighbours are still trapped in our homes. Our women and children are terrified. We are running out of water, ration, medicine etc. In the last five days, I tried to come out of my house to buy the essential things, but I had to run back into my house because the situation is very bad. Officially there have been just 5-6 deaths. But, unofficially there are rumours that the death toll could be much higher.
The Army has not been able to reach the interiors of Rohtak town and it's neighborhood. Situation is much worse there and the Army lacks knowledge of local geography. That's the problem here.
From my house, I can see billowing smoke from different parts of the city. It is really a frightening scene. A trader friend of mine told me that crores of cash has been looted by the mob. It is nothing but dacoity in the name of an agitation. The leaders of the Jat community must end this to save the image of proud Jat caste. Looters have nothing to do with quota agitation.
The local administration is neither answering our calls, nor doing anything to punish the mob. We hold the administration directly responsible for this utter lawlessness in the state.
If the rampage goes on for just one day or may be two days, we can understand. But, it has been going on for over 5-6 days. It clearly shows that the adminstration has totally collapsed.
I am now seriously planning to go to Delhi to live with my sister for sometime. Even if the violence ends, it will take many more months to restore normalcy in Rohtak.
In my opinion, Rohtak region has never seen something like this before.
Where is the administration? Will it own up and pay for its inefficient handling of the situation?
We have no such high hopes.
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