Several youths and police officials were injured as Civil Service aspirants’ protest turned violent on Thursday around 8.30 pm. The protesters set on fire vehicles, including a police jeep, and pelted stones near National Highway 1 near bypass road in North Delhi’s Burari area. Around 20 students were detained.
Around one thousand protesters tried to block the Outer Ring Road around 8.30 pm demanding scrapping of Civil Services Aptitude Test (C-SAT).
Police lobbed several rounds of tear gas shells and used mild force to disperse the protesters.
They blocked the traffic between Wazirabad flyover and Burari for over two hours. It resulted into massive jams in North and North-West Delhi.
When the police tried to move the protesters they started stone pelting. The protest turned violent as Kawariyas camping in Gandhi Nagar area in North-West Delhi joined the agitators.
Around six vehicles, including a police gypsy, a police motorbike and a roadways bus, was set on fire. Even fire officials were thrashed by the mob, the police said. The police have detained around 20 protesters and are looking out for others.
The protesting students expressed sorry for the violence and claimed that they had planned to protest peacefully. “We were protesting peacefully. We don’t know how and when it turned violent. We too ran to safety as the situation grew tense. The Government had promised that the coming UPSC examination won’t take place until a committee makes the decision, but as students were issued admit cards we were agitated,” said one of the protestors.
Traffic jam could be cleared only around 11pm.
“A case of rioting, damage to public property, voluntarily causing hurt and assault to deter public servants from discharge their duty has been registered. Police forces have been deployed to control the situation. Further investigations are underway,” said DCP (North) Madhur Verma.