Two statues of BR Ambedkar were found destroyed in Bihar’s Nawada and Sheikhpura districts. Both the incidents took place hours before the anti-reservation protests were due to begin across the country on Tuesday.

In Nawada’s Hasanpura village, unidentified people damaged the hand of a six-foot tall statue, The Indian Express reported. A few local women said they had seen armed people near the statue on Monday night, but did not come out of their homes to find out what was happening, the report said. The statue has already been repaired.

The Narhat police filed FIRs against unknown people as villagers alleged that the statue was damaged to create caste tensions following the recent protests in the state. “We will soon name the accused once we have evidence,” Dharmendra Prasad, who is in charge of Narhat police station, told The Indian Express. “We are looking at all aspects, including possible involvement of upper caste people or anyone with vested interests.”

In Sheikhpura, witnesses said the head of an Ambedkar statue was damaged when a crowd tried to move it from Ambedkar Bhavan in Bhedia Pul, The Times of India reported. The incident took place hours before a nationwide anti-reservation bandh began on Tuesday. Local residents later formed a peace committee to repair the statue. So far, no FIR has been filed.

These are the latest in a spate of attacks across the country on statues of Lenin, Periyar, BR Ambedkar, Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Syama Prasad Mookerjee.