As many as six people have been killed in the violence that ensued Hardik Patel’s detention.

The Army continued to be deployed in parts of Ahmedabad, Surat and Mehsana.

Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has also appealed for peace in the state.

A constable of Chowk Bazaar police station, Dilip Rathore, who was injured in clashes with protesters in Dabholi area, succumbed at a private hospital, taking the toll in the violence to nine.

Earlier in the day, campaign leader Hardik Patel hit out at the police for its action, saying, “We were treated like terrorists, and violence broke out only after police mercilessly beat up the protestors”, he said in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN.

Schools in Ahmedabad remained closed Thursday and there was a heavy police and military presence, but an AFP correspondent in the city said it was calm and shops and businesses had begun to reopen.

Hardik Patel, who is spearheading an agitation demanding OBC status for Patels in Gujarat, on Tuesday accused the police of committing excesses and vowed to intensify their stir.

At least half a million members of the Patidar, or Patel, community rallied on Tuesday in the city of Ahmedabad to demand changes to policies that, they argue, unfairly favor groups at the lower end of India s social order.

Despite taking down local mobile Internet connections, the protest went on and turned violent, paramilitary forces being deployed across the state, and a curfew being put in place in Ahmedabad.

The Patidars, or Patels, who make up around 12 percent of the population of western Gujarat state, say they are struggling to compete with less privileged castes for jobs and university places.

Meanwhile, several religious leaders, including Morari Bapu and Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Swaminaryan sect, have issued appeals for peace.

In north Gujarat, mobs set fire to the offices of a minister and two MLAs.

Gujarat was run for over a decade by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is one of the country’s most affluent states.

In a related development, a metropolitan court on Wednesday chose to conduct an inquiry into the 25 August lathicharge at Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) ground in Ahmedabad, venue of Patel’s mass rally of the Patidar community, whose members use the surname Patel.