'Bharat' bandh: Trains stopped, highway blocked in UP

Samajwadi Party and BJP workers today staged demonstrations and stopped trains at a number of places in Uttar Pradesh in support of the bandh called by them against FDI in multi-brand retail and hike in diesel prices.

Protestors stopped trains in Mathura, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow as part of their stir while BJP workers and traders blocked the Agra-Gwalior Highway by burning tyres.

Major markets remained closed at a number of places in UP, including the state capital, official sources said here.

Raising slogans against FDI in retail, a group of workers held a demonstration outside the Walmart store at Sultanpur road in Lucknow.

Several prominent schools remained closed as a precautionary measure in the city.

In Lucknow, BJP's former national president Rajnath Singh led the protest, whereas national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was leading the protest in Kanpur. Reports of similar protests also poured in from other districts including Allahabad where activists of the youth wing of the ruling SP stopped the Bareilly-bound Triveni Express at 5.30am on Niranjan railway bridge. They protesters assembled in large numbers along the railway tracks and also burnt the effigies of the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The agitation delayed the onward journey of the train by an hour. SP has directed its workers not to take law in their hands and hold peaceful protest, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chowhdury said.

Meanwhile, CPI workers led by central secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan took out a procession in the state capital and demanded roll back of FDI in retail, hike in diesel price and rationing of cooking gas.

Inspector General of Police (law and order) BP Singh told reporters here that the bandh was by and large peaceful barring minor incidents.

He said that trains were stopped at a few places as a token of protest and at some places police has to chase away the protesters to restore order.

In Gorakhpur, some unidentified persons pelted stones on a freight train in which driver and an RPF jawan sustained injuries, he said.

Reports from different districts, including Hathras, Jalaun, Kanpur, Ballia, Mau, Kushinagar, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich, Fatehpur, Rae Bareli, Azamgarh and Etah said that the bandh's response was widescale.