18:44
Security personnel install barricades to stop AISA supporters during a protest march against the irregularities and examination paper leaks, in Patna./ANI Photo
Bihar on Wednesday witnessed a pitched battle between hundreds of student activists demanding Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation and the police, which used tear gas shells, water cannons and batons in a bid to prevent their 'Lok Bhavan march'.
As the swarm of protesters, most of them owing allegiance to AISA, the student wing of CPI-ML Liberation, entered the restricted zone and moved dangerously close to vital installations, the administration went into a tizzy and ordered sealing of the assembly premises, situated a few hundred metres away.
The incident left members of both Houses of the legislature, who were attending the Monsoon session, locked inside.
Trouble had been brewing since around 11 am soon after a large number of student activists, who were expressing their solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party's stir in the national capital, gathered at the historic Gandhi Maidan.
"We seek the resignation of Pradhan for his failure to prevent NEET exam paper leaks. We also demand the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on whose orders the Delhi police brutally tried to repress the Jantar Mantar agitation earlier this week," alleged Paliganj MLA Sandeep Saurav, who is also a former general secretary of AISA and the JNU Students' Union.
