Anti-govt protests in India turn deadly
Several trains, police station set ablaze, politicians houses attacked: Scores of demonstrator protests army recruitment plan arrested
Indian police fired at an angry mob who set trains on fire Friday during protests against a new short-term military recruitment scheme that have flared around the country and turned dead.
Hundreds of people had stood on tracks in the southern city of Secunderabad, burning piles of debris to block passenger rail services and setting alight carriages on at least four trains.
Officers fired live rounds to disperse the protesters, an AFP photographer at the scene witnessed, with at least one demonstrator dead and several others wounded in the incident.
https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1537670572649459715
Scores of defence job aspirants staged protests across several states against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme. Trains were set afire, public and police vehicles attacked and personnel injured as protests over ‘Agnipath’ swept across several states on Friday.
Half a dozen trains set on fire, stations vandalised, stone pelting, arson, mayhem on the streets - the Army needs to carry out flag marches all over India as soon as possible; the Centre and the States are incapable of containing these anarchists. pic.twitter.com/iYdV7oiV20
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) June 17, 2022
From Bihar’s Ara to Haryana’s Palwal, from Agra in Uttar Pradesh to Gwalior and Indore in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of young aspirants for jobs in the armed forces took to streets, pouring their anger on public and private property. Police fired teargas shells and used baton to break up protests by angry youngsters who blocked railway tracks, threw burning tyres on roads, and performed push-ups and other drills on the streets against the new recruitment policy. Stay tuned to India.com for all updates related to the Agnipath scheme.
A police station was attacked and set on fire in Teleganga and the house of Bihar chief minister attacked.
In several parts of India, trains were cancelled and delayed as protesters targeted railway lines. In Bihar, trains were set on fire at several railway stations across the state. More than 100 young men stormed the railway station in Bihar’s Buxar district and squatted on the tracks. Stay on indiatoday.in for more updates.
A group of people staged a protest at Trichy railway station in Tamil Nadu against the Agnipath scheme. The protestors sat on a railway track and demanded the scheme be withdrawn. Police detained 35 protestors.
Protests widened against India’s new military recruitment system, Agnipath, as people shouted slogans and burned train coaches in northern India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced an overhaul of recruitment for the country’s armed forces https://t.co/0bQSlRkl9N pic.twitter.com/2NOKNVmS4F
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 17, 2022
The railway police officials who reached the spot pacified the students and moved them away from the tracks.
Protests have raged in several cities around the country since Thursday, when police in eastern Bihar state fired tear gas at crowds who set train carriages alight and tried to storm government buildings.
This week the Indian government announced a temporary recruitment plan to induct young adults into the armed forces for four years -- a major break from the past, as non-commissioned ranks are seen as lifetime jobs.
The new recruits will miss out on entitlements enjoyed by existing personnel, including government pensions, unless they are retained after the four-year programme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pitched the recruitment plan as a pathway to modernise India's armed forces with a younger and leaner soldier corps, while also creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Unemployment has long been a millstone around the Indian economy's neck, with joblessness figures at their worst since the 1970s even before the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on local commerce.