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Agnipath protests: 100 arrested in UP's Ballia for vandalising, torching trains
A group of people protesting against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme damaged at least three Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation buses along the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
Protests against 'Agnipath' - the Centre's new recruitment scheme for the armed forces - continued on Friday, with 100 people arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia district for vandalising two trains, pelting stones, and setting a compartment of a train on fire earlier this morning.
In other regions of the northern state, public buses were torched near Tappal in Aligarh by angry protestors while a train at the Lalpur Railway Station in Kanpur Dehat was stopped.
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Hindustan Times reported earlier people protesting against the 'Agnipath' scheme damaged at least three UP State Road Transport Corporation buses on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
Police said that the windscreens of these 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 5am.
Violence was also reported from Shikohabad in Firozabad on Thursday as well, which led to traffic disruption on the Agra-Delhi and Agra-Jaipur national highways.
ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told news agency ANI that protests are still underway at some places in Mathura where senior officials are present, and are trying to pacify “all students and aspirants”. “We have also received some intelligence inputs that some organisations are further inciting it. Police will take further action,” he was quoted as saying.
Visuals shared by ANI also showed that the Jattari Police Station building and a police vehicle were set afire by protesters in Aligarh.
The protests which turned violent throughout the country over the past two days - with visuals of burning trains on social media - have spread to at least seven states.
One person died and eight others were critically injured after police opened fire to control an angry mob at the Secunderabad Railway Station in Telangana on Friday.
Indian Railways has said that more than 200 trains have been affected owing to the protests. Of these, 35 have been cancelled and 13 short-terminated, news agency PTI reported. East Central Railways said that as many as nine trains have cancelled so far and an equal number short-terminated at various stations in the zone, ANI reported.
(With inputs from UP Bureau)
