Train services paralysed in Bihar, BJP claims stir successful

Over 1000 BJP workers detained across the state

Rail services were paralysed in Bihar today with BJP workers storming stations and blocking movement of over 100 trains during a 'rail roko' protest against denial of special category status to the state on the lines of Seemandhra.

Over 1000 BJP workers were detained across the state for disrupting train services including senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of the Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav and state party President Mangal Pandey when they tried to stop trains at Sachivalya halt in Patna town, police and railway sources said.

Before being taken away by police, Sushil Modi told reporters that the Centre was "discriminating against a poor and backward state" in the grant of special category status and package.

Modi and other BJP leaders were later released.

BJP workers also stopped trains at Patna, Darbhanga, Bettiah, Kaimur, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and other parts of in the state.

There was an altercation between intermediate students and protesters at the Rajendra Nagar terminal in the state capital. The students who wanted to travel by train to appear in examinations, were chased away by BJP workers, railway sources said.

The protesters holding banners and placards, stormed railway stations and halts under Danapur, Sonepur, Samastipur and Mughalsarai divisions of the East Central Railway encompassing most of 38 districts in the state, ECR Chief Public Relation Officer Amitabh Prabhakar said.

BJP leader Nand KishoreYadav claimed that the rail roko was peaceful and totally successful.

Howver, Congress and RJD described BJP's agitation as a flop.