Agnipath protest: Youth go on the rampage, set trains afire in Bihar
Patna, June 16, 2022
More than 15 districts across Bihar on Thursday witnessed widespread protests and vandalism as large numbers of youth went on the rampage against Agnipath, the central government's new recruitment scheme for the Armed Forces
In Nawada, the protesting youth set the BJP office on fire. More than 300 chairs, office properties and documents were gutted in the fire.
Also in Nawada, BJP MLA Aruna Devi came under attack by a large number of Army aspirants when she was passing through a railway crossing.
Aruna Devi was on her way to the district headquarters, Nawada city, to participate in an event. When her car reached the railway crossing of Nawada railway station, a large number of protesters attacked her. They pelted stones on her vehicles. She somehow managed to escape in her car. Her driver, however, received minor injuries in the incident.
In Bihar's Gopalganj district, the agitating aspirants set three coaches of a passenger train on fire at Sidhwalia railway station.
In Chhapra, the protesters attacked as many as 12 trains and set coaches of three of them on fire. In Kaimur, they set the Inter-city Express train on fire.
An agitating student in Chhapra said that the central government wants to push students into criminal activities as they will have nothing to do after four years of service in defence forces.
"After four years of job, a youth becomes trained in military skills and combat. Once he becomes unemployed, what will he do? He will take up terrorism, criminal activities and even police will not be able to arrest such youth. They will be more skilful in military combat than police personnel," an agitating youth said.
Another youth said: "Why Agnipath scheme is not implemented on officers. They should also be brought into this scheme and restricted for four years of service."
The majority of the aspirants demanded withdrawal of the Agnipath scheme and start of normal recruitment into defence forces.
IANS
