JAIPUR, India — Police opened fire on a violent demonstration by members of one of India’s lowest castes Saturday, killing four protesters and taking the death toll in two days of protests to 20, a senior police official said.
Gujjars began protesting Friday in villages and towns across Rajasthan state in western India after the government refused to reclassify their caste at a lower social level. Reclassification would allow the Gujjars to qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups.
On Saturday, police in Sikandra town fired at protesters who had torched a police station and two buses and shot and injured a policeman, said Amanjit Singh Gill, Rajasthan state director-general of police. Protesters also burned a police station in the nearby village of Chandra Guddaji, Gill said.
