Agnipath row: Thousands ransack Indian railway station as protests intensify over military hiring plan

On Saturday, several protesters in the northeastern state of Bihar ransacked offices and damaged public property in a railway station in order to express their outrage over a new military recruitment plan with a demand from the government to reverse course, reported Reuters.

Thousands of protesters attacked and damaged train coaches, burned tyres, and clashed with the officials at the railway station. Considering the unrest, the authorities cancelled close to 360 trains.

A senior police official, Sanjay Singh, who oversees law and order in the state, told Reuters that nearly 12 protesters were arrested and at least four policemen injured in the attack.

"Around 2,000 to 2,500 people entered the Masaurhi railway station and attacked the forces," he added.

The Police have totally arrested at least 250 people in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh as a preventive measure, and there has been one death during the protest this week. Some people have accused the police of using excessive force.

On Saturday, the government announced concessions for those who will serve under the scheme in order to control the protests and outrage.

The federal home ministry announced that it would reserve 10 per cent of vacancies in the paramilitary forces and Assam Rifles, which is a unit in the Indian army, for those who have passed out of the army after the four years mandated in the scheme.

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The defence ministry also declared that it would reserve 10% of its vacancies for those who have completed the scheme.

"Perhaps because it is a new scheme, people have misunderstood it, but we have been discussing this with everyone, including ex-servicemen," Reuters quoted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at a conference on Saturday.

According to the navy chief, the protests are a result of misinformation about the new system.

Admiral R. Hari Kumar told ANI in a statement, "I didn't anticipate any protests like this. It is the single biggest human resource management transformation that has ever happened in the Indian military."

The scheme does not apply to women in combat roles, and there are no plans presently to change this.

The new scheme called Agnipath or "path of fire" has been introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government with the intention of bringing more people into the military on four-year contracts to reduce the average age of India's 1.38 million-strong armed forces.

Lieutenant General Anil Puri told NDTV news channel that the plan was aimed at making the military more modern and effective.

The scheme will retain 25% of the recruited soldiers after four years of service, and the rest are said to get priority for other jobs, such as with the state police.

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