Ramvilas Paswan among 4,000 bandh supporters held

More than 4,000 bandh supporters, including Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan and other opposition leaders, were rounded up and normal life partially effected in Bihar during the 12-hour bandh called today by 13 political parties against escalating prices of essential commodities.

More than 4,000 bandh supporters, including Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan and other opposition leaders, were rounded up and normal life partially effected in Bihar during the 12-hour bandh called on Tuesday by 13 political parties against escalating prices of essential commodities.

HT Image

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

Paswan, RJD leader and former Union Minister Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, Communist Party of India - Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, besides several Members of Legislative Assembly and Members of Legislative Council, belonging to various opposition parties in Bihar, were rounded up from different parts of the state, official sources said.

In Patna, shops and major business establishments downed their shutters, long distance buses stopped plying, schools and colleges remained closed and traffic depleted.

Paswan, accompanied by Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal Secretary General Ram Kripal Yadav, led a procession of activists of RJD and LJP and blocked the busy Dak bungalow roundabout in the state capital.

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

CPI-M leader Dipankar Bhattacharya was arrested while leading a separate procession of his party to enforce the bandh.