HYDERABAD: A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad was killed and many others were wounded after security personnel opened fire on hundreds of agitators at Secunderabad railway station on Friday after people started protesting against the central government’s new Agnipath scheme.
Violent protests have been reported from various parts of the country including, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. The death of D Rakesh in Telangana has led to a war of words between the ruling TRS in Telangana and the opposition BJP, with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao blaming the “faulty procedures” of the Centre for the death.
Government job to a family member as per qualification will be given, the minister announced. While expressing compassion over the death of the 24-year-old, Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased will also be given, he announced further. As the railway station witnessed violent scenes with numbers hitting from 300 in the morning to around 2,000 later and protesters engaging in violence, targeting train coaches, passengers ran for their lives and left behind their possessions inside trains, Government Railway Police (GRP) officials said.
The Troublemakers started running towards the loco engines, to set them on fire, but the RPF and police told them not to do so. After that, the protestors started to set other things on fire while pelting stones at police personnel. Due to the heavy stone-pelting, the police were unable to reach them, said GRP officials. To warn them to not set on fire the loco engines, the RPF personnel fired in the air. To save the lives of the public, passengers, police, and the agitators the RPF personnel opened fire on the mob preventing them from setting fire to the loco engines, they further added.
If they would have burnt the engines then it would have led to a huge explosion which would have resulted in damage to human lives including the protesters, they said. 13 people have already been injured and were rushed to the state-run hospital near the railway station. Out of 13, one has a chest injury, while another one has a fracture, a health official said.
GRP (Secunderabad) Superintendent of Police B Anuradha said at 9.15 AM on Friday some army job aspirants with an apprehension that their written test would get cancelled came to the railway station and indulged in rioting. They had finished their physical test. Officials said they entered the station posing as passengers. The agitators, numbering about 1500-2000, set on fire some railway bogies and also indulged in stone-pelting on the trains and at police and security personnel. “We booked cases against them. In the rioting, some police personnel also were injured. This was an unexpected event,” she said.
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘DNP INDIA’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER.
