Bihar shutdown: Protesters go on rampage, trains hit

Patna, July 11: Hundreds of supporters of Jan Adhikar Party chief Pappu Yadav on Saturday went on a rampage at different places across Bihar, halting trains and blocking roads to enforce a shutdown called over the death of a youth.

Armed with bamboo sticks, Yadav's supporters vandalised shops, roadside stalls and attacked vehicles, police said.

Yadav was subsequently arrested along with dozens of his supporters in Patna for blocking the busy Dak Bungalow crossing here.

At several places in Saharsa, Patna, Ara, Madhepura, Bhagalpur districts, protesters clashed with local residents for forcing them to join the shutdown and at some places Yadav's supporters ransacked vehicles and attacked shopkeepers.

"Protesters blocked railway tracks in Madhepura, Ara, Bhagalpur and Jehanabad, disrupting train services. The strikers forcibly stopped trains at various railway stations," a railway official said.

The shutdown because of which hundreds of passengers were stranded railway stations and bus stands was supported by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's party Hindustani Awam Morcha.

The protests were called over the death of Shyam Narayan Bhardwaj, 21, alias Siku Raj, in a private nursing home on Wednesday after he was thrashed allegedly by BSF personnel and Kishanganj police a week ago.

IANS