Agnipath stir spreads nationwide, youth dies in firing in Telangana's Secunderabad

New Delhi, June 17

A youth was shot dead in police firing in Telangana’s Secunderabad while trains and vehicles went up in flames as railway stations and highways turned into battleground in many states on Friday amid burgeoning protests against Agnipath, the new recruitment scheme.

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Assurances by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah failed to cut ice as hordes of angry youth, carrying bamboo sticks and stones, stormed railway premises across cities and laid siege to highways.

Bharatiya Kisan Union’s Haryana chief Gurnam Singh Charuni, a prominent leader of the year-long farm agitation, joined the protests today along with khaps, saying the new scheme was a second blow to farmers “whose sons are soldiers”.

While Defence Minister Rajnath Singh described the scheme as a golden opportunity for the youth and the Opposition insisted on “immediately rolling back the plan”, violent protests left a 24-year-old Rakesh from Warangal dead and at least 15 injured in clashes between the police and protesters at Secunderabad railway station. The Railways said over 300 trains were affected nationally, most in East Central Zone, and 200 were cancelled due to protests in Telangana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh today. Coaches of seven trains have so far been set ablaze by protesters, officials said.

Anger spilled onto roads as job seekers demanded the old system instead of the new 4-year contract, which allows retention in the force for only 25 pc of the recruits.

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.

Flames leapt out of trains at Secunderabad and Lakhisarai and Samastipur in Bihar, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Broken tubelights, benches and stones littered several railway stations across the country. Policemen in anti-riot gear were seen chasing away the protesters, hundreds of whom were rounded up. Besides targeting railway properties, the protesters attacked the house of Deputy CM Renu Devi and the car of a BJP MLA in Bihar

In UP’s Ballia, agitators 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.

The government continued to defend the plan even as Congress warned of an agitation akin to that over the farm laws. Over 700 farmers had died in the yearlong agitation, Congress MP Deepender Hooda said today, seeking “immediate withdrawal of Agnipath, urgent convening of a special session of Parliament or a meeting of the defence parliamentary committee and three-year relaxation for youth who missed a chance to join the forces because they became overage due to delayed recruitments”. He cited the suicide by a Haryana youth who could not join the forces because he had become overage due to delayed recruitment.

Allaying fears, Rajnath Singh maintained the process of recruitment under Agnipath would start in a few days. He said the decision to raise the upper age limit for Agnipath recruits from 21 years to 23 years in 2022 would benefit a large number of youth.

Home Minister Amit Shahsaid the recruitment process in the Army had been affected due to Covid for the last two years, so the PM took the sensitive decision of giving two years’ concession in the first year. (Inputs from PTI)

Railways bears the brunt

• 340 trains affected; 200 trains, including 140 passenger trains, cancelled
• Coaches of 7 trains set afire; 1 damaged in washing area at UP’s Ballia
• East Central Rlys, covering Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of UP, the worst hit

JD(U) again seeks review of policy

• Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) on Friday made a fresh plea to the Centre for immediate review of Agnipath.

Cong seeks parl panel meeting

• Congress’ KC Venugopal wrote to House committee on defence, seeking a meeting to discuss Agnipath.