New Delhi: Protests against Agnipath scheme turned violent on Thursday as Army aspirants disrupted rail and road traffic in several parts of Bihar.
Trains were set afire, rail and road traffic disrupted, window panes of buses smashed, and passersby, including a ruling BJP MLA, pelted with stones by angry youth demanding the withdrawal of the new short-term recruitment scheme, ND TV reported.
Violent protests have now spread to multiple states including Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Phone internet and SMS services have been suspended for 24 hours in Haryana’s Palwal district following stone-pelting and violence by Army aspirants.
Police in Haryana’s Palwal town fired shots into the air to disperse hundreds of violent protesters out on the streets on Thursday to demonstrate against the Agnipath scheme for recruitment to defence services.
Five police vehicles were torched, several roadways buses were damaged in stone-pelting and the National Highway 19 was blocked.
In Nawada, the vehicle of BJP MLA Aruna Devi, who was on her way to a court, was attacked by the agitators who hurled stones at her car, leaving five persons, including the legislator, injured.
The BJP office in Nawada was also vandalized.
Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior city on Thursday witnessed a massive protest as over 1000 youth vandalised public and private properties, creating panic among the people at railway stations and on the roads
Agnipath, the tour of duty scheme, proposes the recruitment of jawans on a contractual basis for a four-year period followed by compulsory retirement for most without gratuity and pension benefits.
The new recruitment plan aims to cut down the government’s massive salary and pension bills and free up funds for arms procurement.