Kapu protestors in Andhra set train on fire demanding reservation

According to reports, the protesters also set on fire police vehicles and a local police station. Our people are trying to control the situation. Helpless police sought the deployment of additional forces. It was reported that over 200,000 protestors had blocked the Chennai-Kolkata highway. Traffic movement is now back to normal.

Padmanabham gave a call for road and rail blockade at the meeting and immediately agitators in huge numbers stormed the Tuni railway station and destroyed the engine of the Ratnachal Express going from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada. Four railway employees were injured.

South Central Railway CPRO M Umashankar Kumar said, “After the passengers in the coaches got down from the train, four coaches were set on fire”.

“Kapu Community’s protest is a revolt against the government because Chandra Babu Naidu had promised them earlier, before the elections, that he will give reservation to Kapus”.

He warned that if the government failed to respond by Monday evening, he would launch fast-unto-death.

Protestors stand-by as train bogies are set ablaze.

Vijayawada has been spread to by the protests.

Protestors blocking a highway in East Godavari.

Meanwhile, in a late night development, the Kapu leaders withdrew their protest for reservation after large-scale violence rocked Tuni town in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

“We will not move from highways and tracks till the government issues an order”, he said amid loud cheers from tens of thousands who had gathered from different parts of the state.

The community has been demanding inclusion of their caste into the Backward Class list.

The violence broke out around 3 p.m. during a massive public meeting organised by the Kapu State Committee at Tuni.

Hundreds of agitators entered the police station and ransacked it. Within a few minutes, eight police vehicles were torched. The East and West Godavari districts majorly consists of farmers and they are vexed by the policies of the ruling party, he said and added that the violence witnessed on Sunday is the result of simmering dissatisfaction among the farming community.

Personnel of Andhra Pradesh Special Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Rapid Action Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have been deployed in Tuni and other places in the district.