In the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh’s Tappal town, all the coaching facilities put down their shutters on Wednesday. This comes after the majority of these centres came under fire for the violent demonstrations against the Agnipath programme of the Center.

According to reports, the Aligarh Police detained 11 coaching centre operators on suspicion of encouraging students to take part in violent demonstrations against the Agnipath Scheme.

After the Police discovered that the detained rioters are connected to various coaching centres, the owners and operators of army recruiting coaching centres around Uttar Pradesh came under scrutiny.

The centres are accused of inciting students to stage violent protests against the Agnipath military recruitment programme, according to the authorities.

76 suspects have been detained by the police in Aligarh thus far, and 68 have been placed in jail. 11 of the 76 people detained had been connected to coaching centres.

In the state, there are about 2,200 active coaching facilities for army and other recruitments. The coaching facilities advertise that they prepare young people who are interested in competing for various competitive exams, such as the Army, Staff Selection Commission, Railway, UP Sub-Inspector, UP Police Constable, National Defence Academy, Air Force, and UP Teacher Eligibility Test, among others.

On June 18, amid widespread protests against the Agnipath initiative, the Aligarh Police also released images of demonstrators who incited violence in the Tappal neighbourhood and set fire to a bus and a police station in Jattari. In Aligarh, the criminals looted homes and threw rocks. By burning the police post-Jattari on fire, they further disrupted the peace and order in the neighbourhood. The angry protestors continued to throw stones and glass bottles at the SSP and other police officers as they made an effort to protect themselves.

Aligarh police had released images of the tumultuous mob and offered a prize to anyone who could identify them. Numerous “youth” demonstrators defaced public property while posing as protestors and marching after the union government announced the Agniveer scheme in conjunction with the three military services. In several Indian states, so-called armed forces hopefuls destroyed public property, set fire to trains, and disrupted daily life.

Varanasi, Firozabad, Amethi, Ballia, Mathura, Agra, and other places in Uttar Pradesh saw the execution of violent protests. The rioters shouted anti-scheme chants and called for its repeal. In Ballia, Firozabad, and Varanasi, they destroyed a few other trains and set a bogie of an empty train on fire.

The demonstrators destroyed the buses as they travelled along the Yamuna Expressway and the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

According to reports, eight vehicles were set ablaze on the Yamuna Expressway, and four buses were damaged by stone pelting on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. In Ballia, where police used tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters and detained 100 people, protesters also set a coach of an empty train on fire.

The UP Police has so far made 387 arrests from all around the state and filed 34 FIRs against the criminals. Of the 387, 76 were taken into custody in Aligarh, and 145 were booked under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (arrest to prevent the commission of a cognizable offence). Other people detained have been charged with rioting and causing damage to public property, among other IPC provisions.

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