Bulldozers become part of Aligarh Police’s caravan

A flag march taken out by the Aligarh Police comprised bulldozers as part of it on Monday. According to the Times of India, the march was organised after a police post and vehicle were “torched by protestors” during the uproar against the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the Armed Forces introduced by the Centre.

TOI quoted Aligarh SSP Kalanidhi Naithani as saying that he had “no idea how bulldozers became a part of the police convoy or where they came from”. Another official, SP (rural) Palash Bansal told TOI, “We had no intention of using them.”

However, locals felt that the police used bulldozers to “create fear among the public”, which worked since the shopkeepers “closed their shops due to panic after cops gathered in large numbers”. Another shopkeeper said that the “Police stayed with the bulldozers for almost two hours.”

TOI quoted a local leader as saying that the cops were trying to “terrorise people”. However, a former SP MLA said, “This was just a balancing act. This exercise was perhaps an attempt to show that cops are not biased and that they can bring out the bulldozers against any group.”

According to TOI, so far, 11 people who run coaching institutes in Aligarh have been taken into custody for instigating the protests against Agnipath recruitment scheme, including BJP leader Sudhir Sharma who owns the Young India Coaching Institute and has been thrown out of the party.