Seven Kanwarias were killed in separate road accidents in three states sparking protests by the Shiva devotees who set afire vehicles and blocked traffic on highways prompting police to open fire in which one person was killed.

Three devotees were mowed down near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and two each at Manesar in Haryana and at Kotputli in Rajasthan by speeding trucks, officials said.

At Oonj near the temple town of Varanasi, police fired to quell a rampaging mob which set ablaze several vehicles on the busy G T Road and ransacked a police station.

At least 50 Kanwarias and 15 policemen were injured in the violence, SP (Bhadohi) R K Swarnkar said adding additional forces had been requisitioned to maintain law and order.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the G T Road as protesters squatted on the highway, the SP said.

In Lucknow, Special Secretary (Home) R P Mishra told reporters that the person killed in police firing was identified as Ajit Chaubey.

Enraged over the deaths in the wee hours at Manesar, hundreds of devotees and locals blocked traffic on the Delhi-Jaipur highway and set ablaze seven vehicles, including two state roadways buses and the car of a senior police officer.

Police resorted to baton-charge to scatter the agitators who also torched the loaded truck involved in the accident and smashed window panes of several passing vehicles.

In the third incident, two Kanwarias -- a father and his teenaged son -- were killed by a vehicle near Kotputli on the Jaipur-Delhi highway.

Every year in the month of Shravana, lakhs of Kanwarias visit the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, carrying waters from the holy Sangam in Allahabad.