Agnipath Protest Latest Updates: Violent protests continued for the third day against the Central government’s Agnipath scheme with agitators taking to the streets in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and setting trains on fire, blocking highways and damaging public properties. On the third day of the protest, Secunderabad in Telangana became the epicentre of mob violence, where one person was killed in police firing and over 15 others were injured during the protests. An angry mob set fire to a parcel coach of a passenger train in the city’s railway station and pelted its coaches with stones and lobbed petrol bombs inside.
During the protests, a total of 12 trains have been set on fire since June 15, including four in Friday’s violence – two in Bihar, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in Telangana.
The Indian Railways said nearly 300 trains were affected, 35 cancelled and 13 short-terminated even as union home minister Amit Shah and army chief Gen Manoj Pande stepped in to address concerns.
Assurances by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and the Army chief failed to cut ice with hordes of angry youth, carrying bamboo sticks and stones, storming railway premises across cities and small towns and laying siege to highways, creating a security scare.
The Army chief said the government’s Thursday night decision to raise the upper age limit to 23 years from 21 under the scheme in 2022 will provide an opportunity to youths who were preparing to join the force but couldn’t in the last two years.
“I heartily thank Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi for his concern and sensitivity towards the future of the youths. I appeal to the youth that the process of recruitment in the army is going to start in a few days. They start their preparation for it,” Rajnath Singh tweeted, calling the scheme a “golden opportunity” for the youth.
But the protests spread, seemingly uncontrolled, with crowds squatting on tracks and highways, pelting trains and buses with stones, toppling vending kiosks at train stations and burning used tyres on tracks.
Fiery orange flames were seen out of the windows of trains at Secunderabad, and Lakhisarai and Samastipur in Bihar, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky that could be seen from several kilometres away.
Demonstrators also blocked highways at several places in Buxar, Bhagalpur and Samastipur with burnt tyres.
Besides targeting railway properties, the protesters attacked the house of Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi and the car of a BJP MLA in Bihar. State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal’s residence in Bettiah town was also vandalised but the leader claimed the attackers were not job aspirants.
The scenes of chaos unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia, where the agitators shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Agnipath Vapas Lo set an empty train on fire and vandalised a few other trains, provoking a baton charge. Protests also erupted in Varanasi, Firozabad and Amethi, causing damage to government buses and other symbols of public property.
Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital Indore, Haryana’s Narwana and many places in West Bengal and Jharkhand witnessed protests.
Following the violent protests in Palwal, the Haryana government has suspended mobile internet and SMS services for 24 hours in Ballabhgarh area of Faridabad district as a precautionary measure. Protests also broke out in Hisar, Fatehabad and Jhajjar in Haryana.
The national capital was relatively quiet but Metro travel was disrupted with members of the Left-affiliated All India Students’ Association staging demonstrations. The entry and exit gates of some Delhi Metro stations had to be closed.
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