Jammu’s high-security police lines were rocked by protests on Thursday by scores of job aspirants who continued to be detained for the second day over an agitation against the government’s decision to hire a blacklisted company to conduct recruitment exams.

The protests, witnessing increasing solidarity between job aspirants from Jammu and the Kashmir Valley, showed no sign of abating despite a police lathi-charge and detention of dozens of youths on Wednesday. “Go Back Aptech” slogans, seeking scrapping of the contract awarded to the blacklisted company, were raised inside the Jammu Police Lines after nearly 200 job aspirants were detained.

Mumbai-based Aptech has been hired by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board, an arm of the government, to conduct recruitments in government departments. The agency has been blacklisted by several states. Vinkal Sharma, spokesman of Youth Against Corruption who was among those detained, said the protests inside the police lines were peaceful. “There were slogans against Aptech by some 200 aspirants who were detained here. No force was used. We were released later,” Sharma told The Telegraph.

During the day, there was a massive protest in Jammu city where many protesters chanted “Lt Governor Go Back”. The protesters included both Jammu Dogras and Kashmiri Muslims. The 2019 scrapping of special status saw Jammu and Kashmir divided along religious lines, but the Jammu Dogras have been increasingly raising their voice against the government’s policies.

There have been simultaneous protests in Jammu and Srinagar and other places against the government’s decision to hire the blacklisted company. The government is battling a credibility crisis after a number of recruitment lists were discarded over allegations of fraud in the last two years. The government later hired the private firm to conduct exams, only adding to the suspicion of the aspirants.

A senior official of the JKSSB justified the hiring of a private firm, claiming it has already completed the blacklisting period of three years in May last year. “When we are selecting a company for conducting a written examination, we also employ checks and balances to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness in the selection. We are following a procedure which matches the standards of major national-level recruitment agencies,” an official said.

“The CBT (computer-based written tests) shall be conducted under CCTV surveillance for maintaining transparency in the examination. Besides, low-frequency jammers are being installed in all the examination centres to prevent the use of unfair means including cheating using Bluetooth and Wi-fi-enabled electronic devices.”