MUMBAI: Hundreds of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party workers went on rampage in Mumbai and Thane beating North Indians taking a recruitment test for Indian Railways yesterday.
The Raj Thackeray’s party workers, continuing their policy of boosting Marathi people, beat candidates who had arrived here to sit for the written examinations of the Indian Railways.
The examinations are being held by the Indian Railways Recruitment Board (IRRB) for recruitment to various posts in the Railways.
According to police sources, some of the candidates from North India had been camping at the Thane railway station on Saturday night when the MNS workers attacked them. Similar attacks were made on the migrant candidates by the MNS workers at Sion, Bhandup, Kanjur Marg, Andheri railway stations, where the candidates were woken from their sleep and brutally beaten.
“They beat us mercilessly with sticks and chains, and kicked us with their boots, even when we fell, the MNS mob pulled us up again, and then slapped and boxed us. Hundreds of us were injured and were chased.
The mob pelted stones while we were fleeing from the examination centers,” said Manoj Tiwari, a candidate from Bihar.
The MNS workers were later joined by Shiv Sena party workers, who too marched to the examination centers and forcibly entered it, snatched the question papers from the examiners and tore them up. The MNS and Shiv Sena workers also went on rampage at Kalyan, Dombivli, Nerul, Nalasopara and Borivli stations and destroyed railway property.
Incidents of attacks by MNS workers against candidates was also reported from Solapur railway division.
The police arrested several MNS and Shiv Sena workers and charged them. A MNS leader said that if the Indian Railways continued to ignore the demand of recruiting Marathi people, such violent agitation would continue.
The MNS has taken a stand that the people from Maharashtra should be given top priority for jobs in Indian Railways. The Shiv Sena had taken this stand much earlier and both the parties are now facing off each other on the Marathi issue.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav lambasted MNS President Raj Thackeray at a press conference in New Delhi, and said that Thackeray has lost his mental balance. This statement of the railway minister is likely to fuel more trouble in Maharashtra, said a MNS leader.
