Jalandhar: 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 on June 5 night, prompting authorities to clamp curfew at a village, police said.

Members of the two communities clashed at Palhan village, when a group of Dalit youth allegedly intruded in a fair organised by the Jat community.

The clash left at least 10 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 Palhan 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.

The police fired in the air to disperse the protestors, who pelted stones on police personnel. In the resultant skirmish, one youth was hurt while a policeman was beaten up by protestors.

Police said the situation though tense, was under control.

The rivalry between the two groups is not new and nearly four months back they had clashed over the issue of controlling management of a Gurudwara at Palhan village.

The Jats had allegedly given a call of social boycott of Dalits living in the village. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes had to intervene in the matter and instructed the state government to resolve the issue amicably.

PTI