Pilupura (Bharatpur), June 2: Gujjars blocking the crucial Mumbai-Delhi rail route here today allowed doctors to conduct autopsies on bodies of men killed in police firing after 10 days of arguments with the administration over the modalities.

Leaders of the community, demanding Scheduled Tribe status, said the decision did not indicate any “weakness”. But dwindling resources and the impending removal of a shrine in the form of the 16 bodies lying next to the tracks are likely to test the Gujjar resolve to sustain the rail roko.

“Please send the doctors in. We are ready to receive them,” called out Gujjar leader Colonel (retd) Kirori Singh Bainsla on a mobile phone, speaking to a state government official minutes before noon.

Even with the word “please”, the call sounded more like a military command.

An hour later, Rammohan Lal was nervously driving his ambulance towards the rail tracks next to Pilupura — Ground Zero of the agitation that on May 23 had turned violent when police fired on a rampaging mob.

The Gujjars had demanded that the post-mortem team must include at least one doctor from their community, and that the entire operation must be video-graphed and one copy of the tape handed over to them. The Rajasthan government has accepted the demands.

But the larger concern that faces some of the Gujjar leaders is the future of the rail roko once the bodies are cremated.

“We are primarily here to guard the bodies from any mischief by the administration. Once the bodies are gone, I will not be here all day,” said Harbans Gujjar, 27.

Placed on slabs of ice in wooden coffins, the bodies have been slowly putrefying under a tent less than 10 metres from the tracks that usually see four Rajdhani trains crossing every day.

Most other popular trains linking Mumbai and Delhi — like the Jammu Tawi Express, Paschim Express and the Garib Rath — have all been forced to take a detour through Agra.

At 1.30pm, just before the start of the post-mortem, a group of veiled women quietly prayed before the coffins. The women included relatives of those who died, and the ritual has been repeated daily since the deaths.

“I want the struggle to go on but have to go back to take care of my children once the bodies are gone,” said Shakuntala Devi.

A proposal to the Centre from Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, for 4 to 6 per cent reservation for Gujjars under a special category created through a constitutional amendment, was today rejected by Bainsla.

Gujjar leaders say they discussed the proposal and “concluded” that the state government was trying to pass the buck to the Centre.

The refusal might cause Raje some concern in Jaipur, but sustaining the campaign at Pilupura may not be easy for the Gujjar leadership.

Since May 23, water and electricity supplies to the region have been cut. Wells in the area are dry in summer, and local residents depend on water from tube-wells, which they cannot access in the absence of electricity.

“Our water resources dry out tomorrow. What do we do then?” said Rajhans Singh, a 45-year-old farmer who took a bullet on his right knee on May 23.

Although Bainsla said the protesters would survive through rationing, other Gujjar leaders admitted it would not be easy to convince people to stay out without water.

“We need a solution soon,” a leader close to Bainsla said.