A school bus carrying children in Bihar's Gopalganj narrowly escaped a fatal accident on Wednesday when it encountered a protesting mob that had set fire to tyres on the road.
Visuals showed the yellow bus surrounded by the mob armed with sticks. A man was seen burning a tyre right under the vehicle. Several burning tyres were scattered on the road, making it difficult for the bus to pass.
Gopalganj Superintendent of Police Swarn Prabhat told NDTV that a high alert was issued and a large police force was deployed to maintain order.
He mentioned that the police have identified a few individuals who were creating trouble through drone cameras. "I have instructed the police station to file FIRs against the identified troublemakers and send those who attempted to set the bus on fire to jail," he said.
The protests, called by 21 organisations across the country, were in response to the Supreme Court's August 1 ruling allowing states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for granting quotas within these groups.
The apex court's majority verdict held that such sub-classifications are permissible to benefit more underprivileged castes within these categories.
In Bihar, demonstrators disrupted train services and blocked roads in several districts, including Patna, Hajipur, and Darbhanga.
The Police used water cannons and lathi-charged protesters to disperse them. In Patna, police baton-charged the crowd that blocked the road at Dak Bungalow Chowk and inadvertently hit the Sadar-Patna sub-divisional officer (SDO), who was leading the force.
