Patna: Angry farmers in Bihar set a passenger train afire on Saturday afternoon after a villager was killed and dozens others were wounded in a police fire over hundreds of protesting farmers.
The farmers were protesting against state government's bid to forcibly capture their agricultural land for setting up a power project in south Bihar's Aurangabd district. The National Thermal Power Corporation is setting up 4x660 MW Super Thermal Power Plant at Nabinagar.
The farmers had been demanding adequate compensation in lieu of their agricultural land but the local administration refused to look into their grievances. Peeved at the administration's apathy the farmers had announced to stage a massive protest rally yesterday.
On Saturday, more than 5,000 farmers hailing from 16 villages in Aurangabad district had gathered at Akodha village in Aurangabad district to protest the government's land capture drive when the police deployed to control the mob went on the rampage.
Witnesses said the cops brutally caned the protesting farmers, used water cannons and also burst teargas shells to calm them down. In the meantime, one of the teargas shells burst just between the legs of a farmer and he died instantly due to excessive bleedings.
The death of the farmer identified as Ramat Prajapati triggered unrest in the areas as the angry mob of the local villagers stormed a local railway station and then set afire a passenger train stranded at the station. The engine was badly burnt in the incident as the passengers fled helter skelter for safety.
TV footages showed the helmeted police brutally caning the crowd of unarmed villagers, quite good number of them women and children, and directing their water cannons on them, leaving them trembling with cold in the chilly winter.
Those who fell down on the ground in a bid to escape police ex cesses too were not spared and were brutally dealt with.
