Buses, police vehicles vandalised in Gzb, Noida
NOIDA: Several districts of western Uttar Pradesh, including Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar, on Monday, bore the brunt of violence amid the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by several Dalit organisations protesting against amendments in SC/ST Atrocities Act.
Protestors carrying swords, sticks, baseball bats and bricks, vandalised several buses, broke window panes of private vehicles and police vans, and even set ablaze motorcycles.
Some protestors even stopped trains, pelted stones, blocked roads and clashed with police and media.
According to reports, in Ghaziabad, an irate mob of Dalit protesters pelted stone on a bus carrying doctors and nurses of AIIMS, near the Up-ghaziabad border, when the doctors were going for their duty.
However, all 25 occupants of the bus were unharmed, though the bus sustained damaged.
Demonstrators also set vehicles on fire, including a police patrolling motorcycle, in Ghaziabad’s Gaushala area.
An official of Northern Railway said that a mob of around 2,000 arrived at the Ghaziabad yard around 10 am on Monday and swarmed to the tracks, due to which several trains were cancelled.
Meanwhile, in Gautam Buddh Nagar, violence was reported from various parts of the district.
Protestors blocked the Surajpur Dadri main road and vandalised a few buses. A road march was also carried at Pari chowk in Greater Noida, where protestors burnt an effigy of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Similar protests were reported from Jewar, Jagangirpur and Jarchha area of the district.
Meanwhile, a much intensified protest was witnessed in Hapur, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts, where mobs set ablaze a police post and vandalized a police van and a motorcycle.
The mob also fired gunshots at police, during which a civilian sustained injury and was admitted to hospital in critical condition.
Heavy police force, accompanied by army forces personnel, was deployed in the region to bring the situation under control, but in vain.