Protests against Agnipath continue in UP; protesters torch vehicles, ransack railway station

Police said that a group of protesters ransacked the offices of the station master, signal cabin and other officials at Kuchman railway station

Protests against the Agnipath scheme which provides for short term recruitment in the armed forces continued for the third day in Uttar Pradesh, with the protesters torching buses, damaging public properties and blocking traffic on busy roads and highways on Saturday.

The protesters set ablaze a bus and some other vehicles in Jaunpur district besides ransacking a railway station in Chandauli district.

Police sources here said that a group of protesters ransacked the offices of the station master, signal cabin and other officials at Kuchman railway station in Chandauli prompting the cops to use force to disperse them.

Read | Centre cautions states amid protests against Agnipath

In Jaunpur district, protesters indulged in heavy stone pelting and damaged over a dozen vehicles. They also torched a bus and some other vehicles, the officials said.

Police said that FIRs had been lodged against hundreds of unidentified people and as many as 200 people had been taken into custody in connection with the violence across the state in the past three days.

Officials were visiting the villages to reach out to the youths and explaining to them the 'benefits' of the new recruitment scheme, sources said.

The protesters had on Friday torched a police station in Aligarh while a train was set ablaze in Ballia. Several long distance trains were either cancelled or short terminated owing to the violence, sources said.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath once again appealed to the youths to desist from protesting and take advantage of the Agnipath scheme.