The army on Thursday staged a flag march in the curfew-bound towns of Sriganganagar district, where four persons were killed in police firing on demonstrators demanding release of irrigation water.

"The situation is tense but under control, as five to seven army columns have taken over the troubled Rawala and Ghadsana towns, where the police and farmers held a pitched battle yesterday," an official said.

The victims were identified as Raju, Kalu Singh and Mangilal of Rawala, and Jetharam of Ghadsana, the official said, adding their post-mortem was being done.

Telephone links between Ghadsana and Sriganganagar police stations were disrupted, he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of farmers gathered outside the collectorate in Sriganganagar, the police said.

The farmers, supported by the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, were demanding "5.23 cusec water allowance" in the first phase of the Indira Gandhi Canal Project and sufficient water for Rabi crops.