Traders burning the effigy of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit protesting against the sealing of shops in New Delhi. (AFP)

New Delhi • Chaos ruled in the city yesterday on day three of the traders’ strike with thousands of protesters smashing vehicles, blocking roads and railway tracks, while the Central government tried to cool tempers by pleading to the Supreme Court not to resume sealing operations.

Train traffic was disrupted, schools closed abruptly and people were stuck for hours in jams as the last day of the three-day strike to protest the sealing of unauthorised shops in residential colonies turned violent.

The Central government and civic officials in the city went into a huddle to discuss the escalating tensions.

The group of ministers (GOM) set up by the Central government under the leadership of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee began an emergency meeting. And so did top civic officials in a meeting with the Supreme Court appointed three-member monitoring committee to take a final decision on resumption of sealing. Over 20 private blueline buses and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses were stoned and their windowpanes smashed. In east Delhi’s Maujpur locality, angry protesters torched a private bus. Not far away, in Seelampur, where four people were killed in a violent clash with police September 20, protesters formed a human chain in front of the Delhi Metro Station.

Mobs also blocked the Delhi-Ghaziabad railway track near Seelampur for nearly 20 minutes leading to Rapid Action Force (RAF) being deployed and several trains being disrupted. RAF personnel cleared the track and dispersed the human chain in front of the metro station.

“So far, we have detained more than 300 people, of which 60 are from the east Delhi,” a top police official said. Authorities rushed paramilitary forces to help out the besieged policemen in the affected areas following the sudden outburst of violence, just when everyone thought that the situation was nearing normal after almost two days of closure of hundreds of thousands of shops and also many schools across the city.

Hoping to assuage tensions, the Central government yesterday filed a fresh petition in the apex court seeking relief for the over 44,000 traders who had filed affidavits that they would move out of residential areas by October 31.The petition also urged the court to take note of the livelihood issue of traders’ families and all those working in commercial establishments. Trouble had started from the morning itself in different areas when traders and their supporters, many armed with long bamboo sticks, began holding up rush hour traffic on a key bridge leading to east Delhi as well as at Malviya Nagar in south Delhi and Vikas Marg, also in east Delhi.

The traders forced passengers to alight from their vehicles. They also damaged personal vehicles of commuters by smashing their windowpanes and puncturing their tyres.

There was chaos in areas around Mayur Vihar, Patparganj and the Akshardham temple, all in east Delhi, with hundreds of vehicles caught in a suffocating jam.

Similar blockades were reported on the stretch of the arterial Ring Road facing the memorials of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri and National Highway -24.

Scuffles and violence were also reported from West Patel Nagar in west Delhi, Vikas Marg and Laxmi Nagar, Wazirabad, Rohini, Lajpat Nagar, South Extension, Defence Colony, Ashram and Paharganj.

The situation caught schools that were working yesterday completely unawares. In many areas, parents were asked to take their wards home with bus operators refusing to ply and schools unwilling to take chances with the safety of the children.

“Over 100 traders and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) supporters stopped traffic,” said Rohit Goel, a commuter. “They also entered some buses and forced passengers to get down. Windowpanes were smashed.”

BJP leader Vijay Goel denied his party’s involvement in the violence. “We don’t support violence. But traders are so angry that they must have turned violent spontaneously. We want the government to meet the traders’ demands,” Vijay Goel said.

Traders also took out car and scooter rallies across the Capital and burnt effigies of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. With no end to the trouble in sight, most private schools in the Capital have declared a holiday on today as well — making it four straight days of no school this week.