Patna: Train passengers are facing the brunt of the migrants' protests. Many trains passing via Patna were cancelled or delayed after a group of protestors set afire the coaches of the Danapur Express, Ujjain Express and Danapur Saharsa Intercity in Bihar. The situation at the Patna railway station remained grim as the passengers eagerly waited for their trains, which were cancelled, delayed or diverted. A ten-year-old boy had been killed in police firing on protesters who set trains alight and blocked roads in the past three days in retaliation to the attacks on Biharis in Maharashtra.

          An all-party meeting was held here Friday to take stock of the situation arising out of the widespread violence in the state in reaction to the attacks on north Indians in Mumbai by Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) partymen. "We have come to a unanimous decision that all party members will meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil and request them to take stringent action against such group," said Nitish Kumar, who convened the meeting.

          The Mumbai police had arrested Thackeray from a guest house in Ratnagiri after a case was registered against him following Sunday's attack by MNS workers on north Indian candidates appearing in a railway examination in suburb Kherwadi. Raj has been charged under Sections 153, 353, 336, 425 and 427 of IPC, police sources said. His arrest too had triggered violence across Maharashtra, with the police resorting to lathi-charge in several parts to dispel the protesters.      
-October 24, 2008