Bihar protests go on

Modi, Thakur hurt, 5000 detained during clash

AFP, Patna

Violent mobs set fire to a car as protests continued Saturday in the east Indian state of Bihar over the alleged illegal killing of three youths by police, officials said.

Rioting and arson started early morning in the troubled state capital Patna when a group of young men torched a car in front of a police picket.

"The youths drove the car on the main Bailey Road street of the state capital at 10 am (0430 GMT) and hit a motorcycle. They then got off and torched the car," a police official said.

The officer said the car was probably stolen by the men before being driven to the spot and set ablaze. The incident took place barely a few hundred metres from the chief minister's residence.

PTI adds: Opposition activists fought pitched battles with police here as large scale violence and arrest of more than 5,000 protestors marred the opposition-sponsored Bihar bandh which paralysed normal life across the state on Friday.

Leader of the Opposition Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP and former Union minister CP Thakur were among scores of opposition leaders and protestors injured in police action when they were leading a procession to enforce the bandh called to protest the killing of three youths here on Sunday in fake police encounter. Modi suffered minor head injuries.

Over 5000 bandh supporters across the state were taken into custody, official sources here said.

The centre of violence was Ashiana Nagar locality, where the youths were gunned down, with bandh supporters locked in running battles on the streets with police which opened fire in the air and lobbed teargas shells to disperse the protestors.

Scores of policemen and agitators were injured in the skirmishes. Mediapersons were also targeted by lathi-wielding hordes who smashed the windscreen of the car of a television news channel.

The police opened fire at Ashiana Nagar after a warning by Special Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar over the public address system failed to dissuade rioters from ransacking markets, official sources said.