Ramvilas Paswan among 4,000 bandh supporters held in Bihar

More than 4000 bandh supporters, including LJP president Ramvilas Paswan and other opposition leaders, were rounded up and normal life partially hit in Bihar during the 12-hour bandh called by 13 political parties against escalating prices of essential commodities.

Bandh supporters blocked roads, squatted on railway tracks and markets remained closed.

Paswan, RJD leader and former Union minister Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav, CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, besides several MLAs and MLCs belonging to various opposition parties in Bihar, were rounded up from different parts of the state, official sources said.

In the state capital, shops and major business establishments downed their shutters, long distance buses did not ply, schools and colleges remained closed and traffic was seen plying in depleted numbers.

Paswan, accompanied by Yadav and RJD secretary general Ramkripal Yadav, led a procession of activists of the RJD-LJP combine and jammed the busy Dakbungalow roundabout in Patna.

Police detained Paswan and thousands of other bandh supporters and shifted them to a camp jail on the outskirts of the state capital.

CPI(M) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya too was arrested while leading a separate procession of his party in the state capital to enforce the bandh.

The bandh supporters blocked the National Highway in Motihari, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Bhagalpur, Purnia and Darbhanga for several hours disrupting movement of vehicles.

Reports from Darbhanga said several trains were detained as bandh supporters blocked the tracks at different places.

The Licchvi Express was stopped at Kamtaul station, while Kamla-Ganga Intercity Express, Sealdah-Darbhanga 3185 express were detained at Laheria Sarai railway station.

The protesters jammed Darbhanga-Muzaffarpur NH 57 at Mabbi road and NH 105 Darbhanga-Jainagar road at Koilakh where several vehicles remained stranded for hours.

An official report said the bandh supporters stopped Jamalpur-Gaya passenger train and threw stones and brickbats on the train in which some passengers suffered minor injuries in Bihar's Nawada district.

The train was stopped at the Nawada Railway station for over an hour, the report said.

Bandh supporters demonstrated at Prajatantra Chowk and stopped and damaged several vehicles in Nawada.

Several other trains, including Barauni Kathgodam Express, Sampark Kranti Express, Vaishali Express and Barauni Mail were stranded at different railway stations as the bandh supporters squatted on the tracks, sources said.

Several exams, including the All India Hotel Management and Heritage (AIHMH) to be conducted by University Grants Commission, were suspended because of the stir.