Amid anti-Pakistan slogans, protests broke out across Bihar on Wednesday against the killing of five jawans in Poonch four of whom hailed from the state even as the wife of a slain soldier rejected the compensation offered by the state government.
Several trains, including Lichchhavi Express and a passenger train, were stopped at Kopa Samhauta railway station between Chhapra and Siwan by friends of Lance Naik Premnath Singh, who was among the four martyrs, demanding that the Centre take direct action against Pakistan.
Two other important trains in this section — Vaishali Express and Bihar Samparak Kranti — were diverted due to the protests, official sources said.
A pall of gloom descended on the native villages of the four Bihar soldiers killed in an ambush by Pakistani attackers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
Of the four, Vijay Kumar Rai belonged to Bihta in rural Patna, Shambhu Sharan Singh hailed from Bhojpur district and Premnath Singh and Raghunandan Prasad were natives of Saran district.
Protestors marched through the streets raising anti-Pakistan slogans in Begusarai, Bettiah, Chhapra and other places, reports said. BJP workers burnt the effigy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Dak Bunglow road in the heart of Patna. “Can the `10 lakh compensation bring back my husband? We don’t want compensation but strong military reply to Pakistan for killing my husband and other Indian soldiers,” a wailing Pushpa Rai, wife of jawan Vijay Rai, said refusing the compensation amount.
“How long will we accept attacks by Pakistan ? ... Our soldiers are killed and beheaded ... We will not accept any thing less than a military action against Pakistan which is perpetrating attacks on our soldiers,” she told reporters.