M A I N   N E W S

Violence in more Bihar areas
Irate students torch train
Sanjay Singh
Tribune News Service

Patna, October 22
The spontaneous agitation yesterday by railway recruitment test examinees on their return to Bihar from Mumbai became more violent and spread to different parts of the state today with students belonging to different colleges and even schoolchildren joining it.

The police, which fought pitched battles with irate mobs at different places, burst tear gas shells and later opened fire at Sasaram to control the situation. Four persons were injured in the incident. Students set afire the South Bihar Express at Barh railway station, 60 km from here, this morning. Four coaches were destroyed in the fire. Reports of attacks on government and railway property and disruption of train services were received from Bhagalpur, Jehanabad, Nawada and other places. Rail traffic on the Grand Chord section and the Howrah-Delhi route through Bihar remained disrupted throughout the day.

Timely intervention by the police at Ara railway station saved the situation from taking an ugly turn when a family belonging to Mumbai on a pilgrimage to Parasnath was accosted by a group of students travelling by the Lokmanya Tilak Express. They pulled out a passenger, Jitendra Saha, when the train stopped at the station ,45 km from Patna railway station, and started beating him up. His family members and other passengers called the police which rounded up a youth and registered a case at Government railway police station, Ara.

The district administration provided a vehicle with police escort to the victim and his family.