Violence rocked many parts of the city as hundreds of students on Wednesday protested against the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Civil Services (UPPCS) examination question paper leak earlier this week.
Trouble began when the students demanding cancellation of both PCS papers and a CBI enquiry into the leakage, were stopped a few metres away from the headquarters of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC).
“Some of the protesters got very agitated at being stopped near the barricades and hurled stones at the security personnel. They also vandalised a number of vehicles in different localities and set fire to a bus near the Allahabad University campus. Hence, the security personnel resorted to mild use of force to quell the mob,” Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar told reporters.
“Deployment of adequate number of personnel drawn from local police, Provincial Armed Constabulary and Rapid Action Force was in place at the UPPSC building since we were apprehensive that the agitators might get violent,” the SSP added.
However, several agitators alleged that the incidents of violence around the university campus followed the “extreme high-handedness of security forces who chased protesters up to the Hindu Hostel, several hundred metres away from the UPPSC, barged inside the hostel campus and beat up a number of inmates after dragging them out of their rooms”.
The situation was later brought under control and no arrests have been made in the incident so far.
This was the second incident of violence over the issue of leakage of question papers for the PCS exams which were held on Sunday.
On Monday, many protesters had torched a state roadways bus while demanding the immediate removal of the UPPSC chairman Anil Yadav, besides a CBI inquiry and cancellation of the exams.
The UPPSC announced cancellation of exams for the first paper, which was leaked in Lucknow and shared with aspirants on Whatsapp, though a large number of candidates have been demanding that exams for both papers be cancelled and held afresh. - PTI
