Minorities safe in state, says Nitish

PATNA: Minorities are safe in Bihar in the rule of the Janata Dal (United)-led government, chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Thursday, seeking to allay apprehensions in a few quarters on the day protests against the amended citizenship act threw life out of gear and arson was reported from several parts of the state.

“I take the guarantee that minority communities cannot be ignored and no wrong can happen to them as long as we are at the helm,” he said, criticising the Opposition that he said was trying to create confusion among minorities. Such provocations will not succeed, he said. “The minorities have seen what they (the Opposition) did for them when they were in power,” he said, in an oblique reference to the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, which has called a Bihar bandh on December 21 to protest against CAA and National Register of Citizens across the country.

On Thursday, Bihar faced large-scale disruption of traffic, vandalism and arson during a state-wide shutdown called by Left parties against the issues CAA and NRC.

Also, parties, such as controversial former MP Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party, which is part of the opposition alliance, took part in the protests.The RJD extended “moral support” to the bandh though its cadre stayed away from enforcing the same.

In many parts of the state, including capital Patna, bandh supporters forced the closure of shops and disrupted movement of vehicles. Incidents of tyre-burning and vandalisation of vehicles were reported from several parts. Bandh supporters were also seen forcing bookshops and coaching institutes to down shutters.

In Patna, activists belonging to pro-Left student bodies stormed the Rajendra Nagar Terminal railway station and squatted on the tracks, disrupting the movement of trains for about half an

hour early in the morning.There was fresh disturbance at the station around 10am when hundreds of JAP activists burnt tyres on a road near the terminal and some of them squatted on the tracks.

At least six FIRs were lodged, including five in Patna alone, against 35 named and 1,000 unknown persons on the charges of road blockade, arson and damaged vehicles. Pappu Yadav was named in one of the FIRs.

During the bandh in Bhojpur, shops and malls were hit with stones. The Nawada police in the district detained around 50 activists after violence. In Muzaffarpur, protesters allegedly pelted stones at a garment store.

Additional director general (headquarters) Jitendra Kumar said the bandh in Bihar was peaceful and there were no reports of violence from any parts of the state. “We are still collecting details. No untoward incident was reported,” he said.