After the family refused to claim the body of Ainul Ansari alias Tarique, a suspect in the serial bomb blasts in Patna who succumbed to his injuries at a hospital, the railway police has decided perform his last rites in a day or two, police officials said on Monday.
Travelling in trains passing through Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is full of risk for passengers. The safety of passengers are threatened by frequent train dacoities and other crimes.
A rail blockade by the Kurmi community in Jharkhand has led to the cancellation, diversion, and short-termination of over 100 passenger trains, leaving thousands stranded. The protesters are demanding Scheduled Tribe status and inclusion of the Kurmali language in the Constitution.
Wednesday's joint protest march in Patna marked a significant moment, with Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly, leading a unified demonstration -- perhaps a first in the state's recent political history.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
The death toll in the overnight stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station climbed to 18 on Sunday, with a senior railway official saying the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footover bridge.
Armed Maoists blasted railway track near Nadaul station in Bihar's Jehanabad district in the wee hours on Monday, disrupting rail traffic for several hours, police said. Raids were on in the area to apprehend the Maoists, who left a pamphlet on the spot demanding immediate production of their leader Divendu Kumar Singh alias Subodh alias Anand before a court, police said.
Normal life in Bihar was on Friday affected by a dawn to dusk `bandh' called by students' bodies in protest against anomalies in the format of exams conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board and police high handedness against protesting students.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of the Opposition in state Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav and state party President Mangal Pandey and several party workers were detained when they tried to stop trains at Sachivalya halt in Patna town, police said.
Twenty coaches of the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express passenger train derailed near Govindpuri station in Kanpur early Saturday after the engine hit an 'object placed on the track'.
Reports of stopping of trains and road blocks are coming in from Patna following the bandh called by the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar against withholding of the caste-based census data by the central government.
Nearly 3,000 persons, including Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and his Lok Janshakti Party counterpart Ramvilas Paswan were arrested during a 24-hour Bihar bandh on Monday which hit rail and road services in the state and witnessed stray incidents of stone pelting.
The three districts are among over a dozen in the state that were lashed by incessant rain for close to 48 hours bringing normal business to a grinding halt and disrupting rail and road traffic in most places.
As fuel prices continue its northward march with petrol and diesel being sold at Rs 80.73 and Rs 72.83 per litre in the national capital, at least 21 opposition parties, led by the Congress have staged a Bharat Bandh protesting the rise in fuel prices and depreciation of the rupee.
The 23-coach 12506 North East Express had departed the Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi at 7:40 am on Wednesday for its nearly 33-hour journey to Kamakhya, about six kilometres away from Guwahati.
Several trains under the purview of SER and ECoR were cancelled or diverted on Wednesday, including the premium Rajdhani Express and Vande Bharat Express, owing to the blockade by members of the Kurmi community in Jharkhand and Odisha, officials said.
'Even if we have laws in place, which we must, we need a societal change.' 'Rather than telling our daughters that, "Listen, leave your house at so and so time, come back by so and so time," we must tell the men and boys that "Whatever point of time you encounter a woman in public space or wherever, you treat her with respect, dignity, and as an equal participant in these public spaces".'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said the state police was conducting an in-depth inquiry into the death of an Assam-based student Pritam Bhattacharya whose body was found near Katoriya station in Barauni-Katihar rail section on July 17.
Officials said protests took place at 17 places across the state, including Ballia, Aligarh, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Varanasi.
'It is our right to protest and draw the attention of this government, which is sleeping and appears blind, as it has failed to see the pain and struggle of the jobless youth.'
Railways Ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena said several people have been rushed to nearby hospitals with injuries, and the casualties may go up.
'We have been threatened. We have felt violated.' 'Everything is in danger if you don't give safe spaces to women.'
"There were some women cadre also in the Maoist contingent that attacked the train on Thursday," Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Law and Order S K Bhardwaj told PTI.
A day after the director of a private residential school in Bihar's Nalanda district was lynched by villagers in presence of the local police the state government has suspended the police officer in-charge of Nalanda police station on Monday.
The probe report has estimated the cost of damage due to the accident at more than Rs 52 crore.
Maoists blasted a portion of a railway track between Ismailpur and Rafiganj section in Bihar, leading to derailment of a pilot engine running ahead of the Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.
A protest happens because the State doesn't follow its own laws. A protest is an objection and a complaint. It exists because it is otherwise unheard, observes Aakar Patel.
The abbreviation of the exams which is the same as the one used for the power producer has been widely used to refer to the controversial test during the reportage on the issue.
Over 40 people died in rain-related incidents, majority of them in Uttar Pradesh, while incessant rainfall in Bihar left the streets of state capital Patna and other areas waterlogged and residences of at least two ministers marooned.
Incensed over the Railway's decision to withdraw stoppage of several trains at Khusrupur station in Bihar, angry locals on Monday ransacked and torched the station, attacked the Intercity Express and uprooted rail lines under Danapur division, approximately 32 km from Patna. Deputy Superintendent of Government Railway Police (Patna East) Rajendra Singh said hundreds of people from nearby villages stormed the Khusrupur railway station today morning, ransacked and burnt it down
Road and rail traffic was partially affected in some regions on Monday during a 'Bharat bandh' called against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, while protests appeared to taper off in many states, with authorities stepping up security and imposing curbs after days of unrest.
Suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist activists blew up a railway track on Tuesday morning in Bihar's Begusarai district under Samastipur division of East Central Railway Services on Barauni-Katihar rail route.
The Palamau Express derailed on Tuesday evening after suspected Maoists blew up a stretch of railway tracks in Latehar district but no casualty or injury was reported.
In Bihar, where a bandh had been called, a railway station and a police vehicle were torched, an ambulance attacked and security personnel injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of the agitation, while protesters vandalised Ludhiana railway station in Punjab and blocked roads and rail tracks in West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
Cases of man-made obstructions were discovered at Malda and Dhanbad divisions by alert railway staff in time, thereby averting major derailments
Prima facie, the derailment was caused by a rail fracture.
District Magistrate Rachna Patil told PTI on Friday, "We are looking after the matter."
Police sources said villagers looted around 35 truckloads of cattle feed after breaking open a rail rake when the train stopped near Mansi village in the district on its way to deliver relief to other flood-hit areas.
The migrants were ferried to their villages in sanitised buses arranged by the Jharkhand government to take them home after preliminary medical screening at the station, officials said.
The Centre on Wednesday announced a raft of post-retirement employment possibilities for 'Agniveer' like priority in recruitment to the central armed police forces (CAPF) and Assam rifles but that failed to assuage the concerns of the opposition Congress which warned the 'transformative' 'Agnipath' scheme will reduce the operational effectiveness of the armed forces.
