Prisoners extend support to Binayak Sen in Bihar

Hundreds of prisoners in Patna's Beur Central Jail in Bihar yesterday staged protests and extended their support to activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh court last week.

Hundreds of prisoners in Patna's Beur Central Jail in Bihar on Friday staged protests and extended their support to activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh court last week.

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According to officials of the high-security jail, the prisoners aired their protest by staging a relay hunger-strike and threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike if justice was not done to Binayak Sen.

"The prisoners observed a day-long hunger strike to protest against conviction to Binayak Sen," a jail official, demanding he be not named, told IANS on Saturday.

It was a first such protest by the prisoners, most of whom belong either to the Left parties or Maoist groups in Bihar, since Sen was convicted on charges of sedition Dec 24.

During their protest, the prisoners shouted slogans and were also addressed by some inmates in the jail where hundreds of prisoners, including Maoists, are lodged.

Official sources in the state prison department said that the security in Bihar's prisons has been tightened in view of the call of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist to observe a country-wide protest week Jan 2-8 against the court judgment, convicting Sen, Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata based businessman Piyush Guha.