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Agnipath scheme: Vandalism, stone pelting in Jaunpur and Kannauj
Jaunpur’s Sikarara area witnessed a violent protest when around 200 youths created ruckus between Bargudar Bridge and Lala Bazar. Equipped with sticks and canes, they damaged two roadways’ buses. They also pelted both the buses with stones and set another bus on fire.
Lucknow/Varanasi: Despite police alertness and patrolling on highways and railway tracks, protests over the Agnipath scheme continued in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday as vandalism, stone pelting and blocking of highways was reported from three east UP districts of Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Ghazipur and west UP’s Kannauj, as well as demonstrations by political parties in Lucknow.
In east UP, at least six cops were injured, four buses vandalized, one bus and two bikes torched and a police vehicle damaged in stone-pelting during aggressive protest in Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Mirzapur.
Jaunpur’s Sikarara area witnessed a violent protest when around 200 youths created ruckus between Bargudar Bridge and Lala Bazar. Equipped with sticks and canes, they damaged two roadways’ buses. They also pelted both the buses with stones and set another bus on fire. A sub-inspector’s Bullet motor cycle and an Apache bike of the police department were also set on fire.
Six people, including SHO Sikrara Vivek Tiwari and a constable Anshuman Yadav were injured. District magistrate Manish Kumar Verma, joint magistrate Himanshu Nagpal and additional superintendent of police Shailendra Singh reached the spot with PAC personnel and drove away the protesters,. Six miscreants were taken into custody from the spot.
The youths also targeted a BJP leader Parashuram. They stopped his car and attacked him but he managed to escape. After this, the miscreants overturned his car and damaged it.
In Fattupur, Indira Chowk, Purani Bazar of Badlapur police station area in Jaunpur, more than 200 youths created a ruckus on the road. Sub inspector Rajendra Prasad Yadav, constable Ram Sujan Yadav and SHO Maharajganj Santosh Kumar Shukla were injured in stone pelting. SO Singramau Kamlesh Kumar Kannojia was also surrounded by the mob. The cops had to fire tear gas shells to quell the mob.
In Mirzapur, protesters vandalized a Kanpur-bound bus near Patharia. Four passengers suffered injuries in sudden stone-pelting.
According to a police officer, six youths were taken into custody from the spot.
In Ghazipur, angry youths hurled stones at Jamania railways station before police drove them away.
In Kannauj, the protestors blocked the Agra-Lucknow expressway near Saurikh, following which traffic was disrupted for some time in the morning. The mob also hurled stones after which the police resorted to cane charge.
The situation was controlled elsewhere as the police arrested 269 people under different charges from Gautam Buddh Nagar, Varanasi, Ballia, Agra, Mathura, Firozabad and Aligarh. Besides, at least 15 FIRs were registered in nine districts, including four each in Varanasi and Mathura and one each in Gorakhpur, Deoria, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ballia, Agra, Firozabad and Aligarh.
UP police additional director general (ADG), law and order, Prashant Kumar said stray incidents were reported in some districts but no major trouble or vandalism. He said the police patrolling on highways and railways tracks had been intensified as protestors usually targeted these places to show their resentment.
“We have been generous with the protestors as they are mostly students and youths. We have arrested 168 out of 269 people for violation of Section 151, Criminal Procedure Code. They were released from the court of the civil magistrates in a few hours,” the ADG said and added, “The remaining 101 people were arrested where protestors got involved into vandalism, arson and stones pelting”.
He had said on Friday that as per intelligence reports, some organisations were trying to create tension by misleading youths about the new recruitment policy. The police were trying to trace them and stern action would be taken against them.
In Lucknow, the AAP workers staged a unique protest at Swasthya Bhawan crossing by holding cow dung cakes in hands. They alleged the union government was trying to recruit youths as security guards and not as ‘jawans’. Similarly, Rashtriya Lok Dal workers tried to take out a protest march in Hazratganj but were stopped at Lucknow Municipal Corporation office building in Lalbagh and dispersed by the district administration after they submitted a memorandum.
Earlier on Friday, major protests over the Agnipath scheme were reported in several districts in U.P., including Ballia, Agra, Mathura, Aligarh Varanasi, Jaunpur, Firozabad, Kanpur Dehat, Farrukhabad, Unnao, and a few other places.
A senior police official said the police officers in the field were continuously interacting with the people preparing for army recruitment to explain the new recruitment policy of the Government of India. He said the officers had been asked to rope in public representatives like village pradhans and District Sainik Welfare Board officials to convince the protestors that this policy would not harm them.
