Thousands of job-seekers in Bihar violently protest lowering of age limit for Indian Railways

Thousands of youths on Sunday staged violent protests and indulged in arson at three railway stations in Bihar against reducing the age limit for recruitment in the Railways, leading to services being disrupted for some time, police said.

The protests against the age limit reduction for Group D recruitment and reserving most of the seats for ITI holders in the Railways came two days after hundreds of unemployed youths protested at Ara train station.

On Sunday, the protesters, mostly job aspirants, demonstrated at Rafiganj railway station in Aurangabad district, Athamgola railway station in Patna district and Hajipur railway station in Vaishali district.

They forcibly stopped trains, blocked tracks, torched vehicles and threw stones at police officials in Rafiganj and Athamgola railway stations.

The protesters shouted slogans against the BJP-led Central government and displayed posters that read "hum pakoda nahi bechenge", "protest against surgical strike on railway job aspirants", "notify more jobs in railways".

The protest left half a dozen police officials injured and services on the Gaya-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway disrupted for hours.

"Some pelted police with stones when officers tried to disperse them in which nearly a dozen of them were injured," a district police official said.

The police opened fire to disperse the protesters in Rafiganj after they tried to ransack the railway station.