Kapu community set 6 bogies, two police stations on fire

Hyderabad: The reservation movement by the Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday took a violent turn by blocking highways, railway lines, they even set fire to train bogies and two police stations in East Godavari, district, Andhra Pradesh.

Thousands of people blocked the arterial Chennai-Kolkata national highway and railway lines bringing road and rail traffic to a grinding halt. Fifteen cops were injured as the agitators clashed with security personnel. The protesters also damaged 25 police vehicles.

The trouble began after a large contingent of people attending the Kapu 'Garjana' meet at V Kottur village went berserk following a call by senior Kapu leader and ex-minister Mudragada Padmanabham to block roads and railway lines.

The officials held an emergency meeting in Vijayawada on Sunday evening after the violence caused by Kapu agitators, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed his anger over the police and intelligence failure.

Mr Naidu said: “The police didn’t smell it. Intelligence didn’t smell it. I also didn’t anticipate this kind of situation. I only anticipated that other castes may react.”