Agnipath
Agnipath stir intensifies across states
New Delhi/UNI: Massive protests across the nation against the central government's Agnipath recruitment scheme entered day three Friday.
Trains and buses were seen set ablaze in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, vandalism at Hyderabad railway station, protests in Rajasthan even BJP-ruled state Haryana was not spared from the brunt.
At Secunderabad railway station in Hyderabad, purported videos of reckless vandals destroying properties and shouting slogans were uploaded on social media.
Several parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh witnessed protests over the new military recruitment policy. The stir spread through BJP-ruled Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
Large mobs set trains on fire in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia and Bihar's Lakhisarai, where two express trains --Jammu Tawi and Vikramshila were vandalised and put to flames on Friday morning.
The Agnipath protests entered the third consecutive day after it was announced on Tuesday. The government has defended the scheme, calling it "transformative" and even went a step further making changes to the upper age limit in the scheme on Thursday.
Bihar bore the maximum brunt of the violence with trains set ablaze on Thursday and Friday. Window panes of buses were smashed and a ruling BJP MLA went under attack during stone pelting by a mob on Thursday.
Friday morning agitated youth squatted on railway tracks in Lakhisarai and other places, blocked roads at many places across the state.
Reports said the house of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi came under attack in Bettiah in West Champaran district. Renu Devi is currently in Patna. A BJP office was also attacked in Lakhisarai district.
In the Begusarai district, students stormed a railway station, and indulged in arson and stone pelting.
In Uttar Pradesh, a mob reached a railway station in Ballia on Friday morning, set a train coach on fire, damaged railway station property before the police reached the spot and dispersed them.
Another protesters' group carrying sticks got into a scuffle with the police on the streets outside the railway station in the eastern Uttar Pradesh district. Videos of the protest on social media showed men armed with lathis breaking shops and railway station benches.
"Police have stopped the mob. We will act against the men," Ballia District Magistrate Saumya Agarwal told the media
The protest spread to Rajasthan, BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, where phone internet and SMS was snapped for 24 hours in Palwal district following stone-throwing and violence by protesters.
On Friday, Faridabad saw similar measures implemented by the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
The Centre unveiled Agnipath on Tuesday. Terming it a "transformative" scheme for recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and the Air Force, basically for a four-year short-term contractual basis.
Aspirants immediately launched the protests as they were unhappy with the changes, particularly the length of service, lack of pension provisions for those released early, and also the age-limit of 17.5 to 21-year age restriction that left many ineligible.
The Centre on Thursday extended the upper age-limit to 23 in a one-time waver.
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