Maharashtra bandh: 16-year-old student killed in violence

Maharashtra saw sporadic incidents of violence, road and rail blockages, stone-pelting and rallies during a bandh called by Dalit groups on Wednesday as tension spiralled in the state hit by protests against the death of a 28-year-old man near Pune earlier this week.

Schools and colleges were open in Mumbai but school buses were off roads on the day security measures were stepped up. Activists jumped on railway tracks, shouted slogans and waved flags to attempt rail blockades in Thane and Palghar districts.

Some examinations of the Aurangabad University had to be rescheduled, while internet services were suspended in the global tourist hotspot. The shutdown evoked greater response in sub-urban areas compared to urban pockets of Thane, Nagpur, Pune and other cities. The coastal Konkan region witnessed a near-total shutdown, as did the Dalit strongholds of Marathwada like Beed, Latur, Solapur, Jalgaon, Dhule, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Palghar.

A 16-year-old student was killed in violence during a road block agitation in Nanded. Yogesh Prahlad Jadhav's family members alleged that he



was seriously injured during a police cane charge to clear a road block near Ashti village and succumbed to injuries. However, district superintendent of police said the body had been sent for autopsy to ascertain the cause of the death.

Flight operations at the Mumbai airport were badly hit, with 12 flights getting cancelled and 235 being delayed.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan calls for a time-bound inquiry into the Maharashtra caste violence, says strict action should be taken against those found guilty. Terming the caste system as the biggest evil of the society, he called for a change in attitude of the people.

The RSS sought to put the blame of caste violence in Maharashtra on a "breaking India brigade" which, it said, had raised anti-national slogans at the JNU in 2016 and was now trying to divide the Hindu society. "The Sangh by uniting all the sections of the society wants to march ahead," RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said when asked to comment on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's reported remark that he suspected an RSS hand behind the violence in Pune.