The Hindu : Front Page : Bihar schoolchildren take to the streets

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Saturday, Jan 29, 2005

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Bihar schoolchildren take to the streets

By Our Correspondent

ANGUISHED LOT: Schoolchildren protest in front of Raj Bhavan in Patna on Friday against the kidnapping of school-goers in Bihar. — Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

PATNA, JAN. 28. Several schoolchildren today braved inclement weather and staged a demonstration before the Raj Bhavan here. They later called on the Bihar Governor, Buta Singh, and urged him to ensure the release of the schoolchildren kidnapped across the State.

After hearing the delegation, the Governor promised to do everything to secure the release of the abducted children. He has convened a high level meeting of officials tomorrow and said he was in touch with the Centre.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad enforced a bandh in Bhagalpur closing down shops and detaining trains to protest against the kidnapping of Deepak Kumar, a student of the DAV Public School in the town.

The vice-chairman of the Bihar Public School Students Welfare Association, S.S. Ahmed, said that in the light of the Governor's assurance they would wait for two days before deciding on a bandh of all schools in the State. He warned that they would have think of closing down the schools indefinitely if matters did not improve.

Three traced: Lalu

The Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, said that the whereabouts of three children had been traced and that the police were making all efforts to trace the other three.

One boy had been tracked to Motihari where he had secretly married a girl with whom he had eloped, he said. Another boy, Sumit, had gone to Delhi and the missing girl from Hajipur, Anjali, was also said to be involved in an affair.

The RJD chief said it would not be long before the entire story of those behind the kidnappings and their motives were exposed. He described as conspiracy the "agenda" to rake up the issue everyday.

He appealed to those "dragging children on to the roads" not to exploit them. He also lashed out against the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for seeking to turn it into an electoral issue when he had not done anything to save the infants killed in Gujarat during the 2002 riots there despite admitting in his speech at Bhagalpur yesterday that Bharatiya Janata Party members had a hand in the riots.

He sought to know what Mr. Vajpayee had done when his nephew was pushed from a running train and killed.

Mr. Lalu Prasad, however, said that it was natural for the President to express concern and charged that it had been politicised by the BJP.

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