Secunderabad: One person was killed and over 10 others were critically injured after the police allegedly opened fire to control an angry mob at the Secunderabad railway station on Friday who were protestinfg against the Union Defence Ministry’s new ‘Agnipath’ scheme. At around 9 am today, hundreds of protesters, most of them with their faces covered with handkerchiefs, thronged the Secunderabad railway station, demanding long-term Army recruitment instead of the new four-year period of service.
The situation escalated with protesters going on a rampage, setting at least three trains and several stalls on fire, vandalising trains, blocking railway tracks with two-wheelers, wooden boxes, garbage cans, gunny bags and wheelbarrows of railway porters, and stealing goods kept in the parcel office. Reports also said that one train was also set on fire.
According to a report in NDTV, at least 5,000 protestors entered a railway station in Secunderabad and tried to set fire to a coach of a passenger train that had nearly 40 occupants inside. The passengers, some of them children, were saved with timely action by railway staff, who helped them move to an adjoining coach.
At least 40 passengers were inside the A1 coach as it was attacked by protesters with sticks and stones, Suman Kumar Sharma, who is an AC power car mechanic, told NDTV.
Narrating how the passengers were transported out of the coach amid, Mr Sharma said, “Two gates were open, so we let the passengers go from one side. We told them, the RPF (Railway Police) will keep you safe.”
For the unversed, Secunderabad is also the headquarters of the South Central Railways. Railway Protection Force, Government Railway Police and the local police forces were outnumbered by the protesters.
According to various reports, the protestors also set fire to a couple of bogies of the Kolkata-bound East Coast Express that was leaving the station. They also partially set fire to some bogies of th Ajanta Express and the multi-modal transport system (MMTS) trains.
The protesters, who were raising slogans of “Jai jawan Jai kisan” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, demanded that the government scrap the recently announced scheme and continue the existing system of recruitment.
The youth were angry that the government cancelled the recruitment examination for which they had been preparing for the last 3-4 years. They said their protest would continue till the Centre scraps the new scheme.
Following the large-scale violence, an alert was sounded at all railway stations in Telangana. Security was tightened at Nampally, Kacheguda and other railway stations in Hyderabad.
Forces were also rushed to Kazipet and Jangaon railway stations as a precautionary measure.
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