Bihar protests against killing of soldiers at LoC, wife rejects compensation

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.

As the news of the death of four jawans from Bihar spread, protestors marched through the streets raising anti-Pakistan slogans in Begusarai, Bettiah, Chhapra and other places, reports said. BJP workers burnt Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's effigy at Dak Bunglow road in the heart of Patna. "Can the Rs 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 at her native village at Bihta. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin and state funeral to the four armymen from Bihar. Kumar had visited Pakistan in November 20012 and had met Nawaz Sharif.