WATCH | Over a dozen injured during clashes in Bihar amid nationwide anti-quota bandh
By IANS | Published: 10th April 2018 11:47 AM |
Last Updated: 10th April 2018 05:45 PM | A+A A- |
Over a dozen of people were injured on Tuesday in a violent clash in Bihar during the Bharat Bandh | PTI
PATNA: Over a dozen of people were injured on Tuesday in a violent clash in Bihar during the "Bharat Bandh" called by various groups to protest against reservation policies, police said.
Supporters, mostly upper castes youths, blocked roads and forcibly enforced the nationwide shutdown in Ara town, Bhojpur district.
"More than a dozen people were injured in the violent clash between supporters of the Bharat Bandh and a pro-reservation group comprising OBCs and Dalits," a district police official said.
Additional security have been deployed in Ara.
According to reports reaching here, hundreds of youths opposing reservation to SC/ST and OBCs and supporting Bharat Bandh, have blocked roads at several places, halted trains and forcibly closed markets in Patna, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Muzafffarpur, Bhojpur, Sheikhpura and Darbhanga districts.
#WATCH: Clash between two groups in Bihar's Arrah during protests against caste-based reservations, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/s0RUA4KP2B
— ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018
The clash comes a day after the Union Home Ministry issued an advisory to all states to take precautionary measures in view of calls on social media for the "Bharat Bandh" by various anti-reservation groups to protest clashes during the April 2 SC/ST shutdown.
The central government has sent 30 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) -- the country's largest paramilitary force -- to various states to maintain law and order during the "Bharat Bandh" called on Tuesday.
Home Ministry officials said 14 of these companies have been sent to Uttar Pradesh, eight to Rajasthan, and four each to Madhya Pradesh and Bihar to prevent any untoward incident during the bandh called in protest against the country's reservation policy.
The Bharat Bandh on April 2 by Dalit groups against the alleged dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order had led to violence and arson in many parts of the country which claimed several lives and left hundreds of civilians and policemen injured.
