Agnipath stir: Telangana rail station turns battle zone, net curbs in 15 Bihar districts

The Secunderabad railway station turned a battle zone on Friday as protesters started pelting stones at the trains parked across all 10 platforms as soon as they entered the station in the morning and set ablaze the luggage van of the Howrah-bound East Coast Express, railway officials said. Later, bogeys of Falaknuma Express and Rajkot Express and eight locomotives at the station were set on fire.Protesters also threw stalls and bikes on the tracks to disrupt train movement. Thousands of passengers ran from the station, some of them leaving their belongings behind.

Youths set fire to four bogeys even before RPF could mobilise its men. Damodara Rakesh, who was shot in the waist, died while being shifted to Gandhi Hospital. Another youth, who sustained bullet injury in the chest, is battling for life. Protesters alleged that railway police fired at them without a warning. “Police shot at us randomly,” said Vamsi Krishna Reddy, 19, a protester from Mahboobnagar who was grazed by a bullet on the leg.
In Bihar, where youths poured onto railway tracks and streets from morning, several bogeys of at least six trains were set on fire at Lakhisarai, Fatuha, Islampur, Danapur and Kulharia. Besides, window panes of several other trains were damaged in stone-pelting in Ara, Buxar and Khagaria. In Lakhisarai, a 40-year-old man who fell unconscious in a bogey of Janseva Express after it was set afire, died during treatment.

Vehicular movement came to a halt as hundreds of students blocked the NH-139 at Arwal, NH-727 and Rajbara Gumti road at Begusarai and GT Road in Aurangabad. Several school buses were set on fire at Daudnagar in Aurangabad. A fire brigade vehicle that went to control fire at Daudnagar was also destroyed by the furious mob. Protesters vandalised the houses of deputy CM Renu Devi and BJP’s state chief Sanjay Jaiswal besides the party’s offices in Lakhisarai and Sasaram.
As protests spilled over most parts of Bihar, the Nitish government later ordered suspension of internet in 15 districts till June 19 and deployment of 10 additional companies of paramilitary forces. RJD and the Left parties have extended their support to a bandh called by youth and student unions on Saturday against the Agnipath scheme.
In UP, 260 people were arrested, more than 100 in Ballia alone where youths set an empty train coach at the railway station on fire. The protests spread to new districts in UP on the third day as protesting youths set ablaze a part of Jattari police outpost and a vehicle inside the outpost premises in Aligarh. Among other places, UPSRTC buses were targeted in Firozabad, Agra and Varanasi while the Delhi-Agra highway was blocked in Mathura amid heavy brickbating. There were reports of protests from Kushinagar, Deoria, Gonda, Amethi, and Sitapur also.

In Haryana, protests spilled over to more districts, forcing the administration to impose prohibitory orders at many places. With Ballabgarh emerging as the new epicentre, police had to resort to use of force to disperse the agitating youths who started pelting them with stones and tried to damage vehicles. After Jind and Rohtak, which have been on the boil since Wednesday, the agitation spread to Charkhi Dadri, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Bhiwani, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, and some pockets of Yamunanagar and Kaithal.
Protests turned violent in Sikar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan where youths vandalised railway stations and attacked cops. In MP, protests erupted in Indore when hundreds of youngsters, their faces covered, blocked trains at Laxmibai Nagar station and hurled brickbats at cops. Three cops, including two officers, were injured. In the military township of Mhow, the administration had imposed Section 144 on Thursday and set up checkpoints to keep out protesters.