LUCKNOW: Over 100 protestors were arrested in Ballia district of eastern UP for vandalizing two trains, indulging in heavy stone-pelting, and setting a compartment of a train on fire earlier Friday morning while lodging fierce protests against Agnipath—new recruitment scheme for the armed forces.
On the day-2 of the demonstrations, several other regions right from east to west and Rohilkhand witnessed stiff resistance to the new scheme announced by the Union government on Tuesday. The public transport system across the state bore the brunt as buses were torched at several places including Tappal town in Aligarh by angry protestors while a train at the Lalpur Railway Station in Kanpur Dehat was stopped.
However, SP, Ballia, Raj Karan Nayyar, said that 40 protesters who torched the train bogey were traced and their names would be given to GRP (Government Railway Police) for further action.
The vandals burnt eight vehicles in Aligarh and torched a police chowky in Jattari in the district.
Earlier in the day, the protestors damaged three buses of UP State Road Transport Corporation on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Police claimed that the windscreens of the buses were smashed even before they could reach the scene. Senior police superintendent Ashish Tiwari said that a handful of youth near the village of Sangai Kharedia in Firozabad damaged the buses using sticks and batons at 5 am. However, before vandalizing the buses, the passengers were de-boarded by the protesting youths.
The protestors also blocked the expressway and pelted stones on commoners and private vehicles leading to panic among the commuters.
Raising slogans 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Agnipath Vapas Lo' and ‘Yogi-Modi Hai Hai’, scores of youths damaged buses at Agra bus station and the same scenes were witnessed in PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency of Varanasi. Protests were held outside the cantonment railway station and Cholapur. The protesters were holding placards and shouting slogans against the scheme. Stones were thrown on vehicles at places such as Chowkaghat and Englishia Line in Varanasi.
However, protests were also witnessed Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Gonda, and Sitapur. In Amethi, huge crowd of protestors hit the streets vandalizing shops, police vehicles and pelting stones on vehicles parked by the road side.
Amethi SP Dinesh Singh was seen reaching out to the agitating youths at the railway station and sitting along with them to placate them and explain the advantages of the new recruitment scheme of the government. Minutes after SP spoke to the agitators they got evicted from the spot.
In Mathura, protesting youths blocked the Delhi-Agra highway, and buses were also vandalized by them.
Taking cognizance of the sensitivity of the protests by youths at railway stations, the DGP headquarters cancelled leaves of all the staff of Government Railway Police (GRP) across the state.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of police, law and order, Prashant Kumar, confirmed the stir across the state by youth aspiring to join the Indian Armed Forces.
“At the places where protests are being held, police officials are speaking to the aspirants and they are being explained that the new scheme is in favour of everyone. They are being briefed that under the scheme, after getting a job, they will not have any issue to work at any other place. They will have that option. And they will be given priority in recruitment for CAPF and police
recruitment. Regarding this, the situation has already been clarified by the state and Central government,” he said.
The ADG claimed that the district police authorities were directed to establish communication with Zila Sainik Kalyan Board and elected representatives like village heads, MLAs and MPs and make people aware of the facts about the scheme busting the myths in order to save the youth from being misled. “We have received information from our intelligence units that some outfits are fomenting the trouble by inciting youth for protests. Such people and organization are under our scanner and they will face strict action,” said ADG Kumar.
The ADG added that district police chiefs were asked to increase the deployment of police force around railway stations and coordinate with GRP and RPF to save the property from falling prey to violent demonstrations.
“We received information that senior students were protesting near the railway station. Police officers and magistrates reached the spot and started a conversation with them. The students were dispersed from there. While being dispersed from the railway station, they tried to break windows of an empty train standing in the washing area. They also tried to set on fire a bogey of a train stationed in an isolated area. The fire has been doused. All have been dispersed from the spot, and patrolling is underway and further action is being taken.”