One of the trucks attacked by agitators in Bokaro on Thursday. Picture by Pankaj Singh

Bokaro, July 24: Parts of Bokaro town were paralysed and the main highway leading to it jammed after an armed mob of thousands turned violent, preventing morning shift workers from entering the gates of Bokaro Steel Plant.

By the afternoon, as violence spread, the police were forced to open fire to quell the unruly mob led by Ehasan Jani, a city-based businessman with interests in poultry.

He was leading supporters of the Jharkhand Vishthapit Mukti Morcha who were demanding, among other things, grade IV jobs for all those “displaced” after Bokaro Steel was established in 1960.

The police have arrested 24 people, while the injured have been admitted at the Bokaro general hospital and several private nursing homes.

More than 500 people, including a city magistrate, 22 police personnel — a DSP and an inspector among them — were injured when the mob of around 2,000 attacked Bokaro steel plant employees, pedestrians, women and children while protesting at the main gate of the administrative building of the plant.

In fact, the plant management, led by executive director Jivesh Mishra, tried to reason with the crowd by offering to meet its leaders. But the mob didn’t agree and retaliated with more violence, injuring city magistrate Manoj Jaiswal in the process.

The police first resorted to lathicharge. But they were forced to open fire when the mob hit the main highway connecting Ranchi and Dhanbad near Shivnath, an area with a predominantly Muslim population.

At 3.30pm the police opened fire as the mob blocked the highway and began pelting stones at vehicles. The protesters retaliated by using their country-made guns, forcing the police to continue the firing. The exchange of fire went on for more than two hours after which the mob dispersed.

Talking to The Telegraph, Bokaro superintendent of police Priya Dubey said the police were forced to open fire. “Several members of the organisation possessed illegal arms which has been seized. This clearly proves the men were goons in the garb of protesters,” she said.

Bokaro Steel corporate communication chief Sanjay Tewary said despite the protests, work did not suffer at the steel plant.