Protesting Gujjars cremate dead, block trains

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - The Gujjar community, which is demanding job quotas, began cremating on Tuesday dozens of people killed by police, but continued blocking rail and road traffic in Rajasthan, the centre of days of violent protests.

Gujjars are fighting to be reclassified further down India's complex Hindu caste and status system to qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups.

The violence, which started 12 days ago in Rajasthan, has claimed some 40 lives, mostly protesters shot dead by police. Gujjars had also briefly halted traffic on highways into New Delhi last week.

They had refused to cremate the dead, squatting with the bodies on rail tracks and roads leading to New Delhi, but eventually agreed to post mortems and cremation.

But they seem in no mood to call off their protests. On Tuesday, hundreds of Gujjar women, their colourful saris drawn over their faces, damaged rail tracks in Rajasthan using axes and sticks.

Rail services, particularly between Rajasthan's capital Jaipur and the Taj Mahal town of Agra, remained disrupted for the 12th day. Some roads in the state continued to be blocked.

"Cremation of four (people) have been done by relatives, while others are likely to happen today," V.S. Singh, Rajasthan's home secretary, said.

"We have stepped up security in and around Bayana and Sikandra," he said, referring to two Rajasthan towns at the centre of the Gujjar protests.

India's government reserves about half of all seats in state colleges and universities for lower castes and tribal groups to flatten centuries-old social hierarchies, in what has been called the world's biggest affirmative action scheme.