Patna, Oct 23 : Various student organisations Thursday gave a call for Bihar shutdown Oct 25 to protest attacks on north Indian candidates by Maharashtra Navnirnam Sena activists during a Railway recruitment examination in Mumbai.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking action to establish rule of law and to prevent violence against Biharis in Maharashtra.

The student organisations here Thursday took out a protest march and gave a call for a day long strike, which they claim will be supported by all major political parties.

The student wings of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and other left parties joined hands for the strike.

The student organisations had Wednesday demanded that the ministers and parliamentarians from Bihar should resign "en masse" in support of their interests.

Nitish Kumar in his letter said that this time terror has been unleashed on those examinees who had come from outside Maharashtra for taking an examination conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board.

Kumar said that due to the ferocity of the violence and the poison of hatred, those returning from Maharashtra vent their ire and frustration on government property in Bihar.

The violent protests continued Thursday with reports received here saying that a mob of protesters torched a police vehicle in Motihari and ransacked the Motihari railway station Thursday morning.

Similarly, angry students ransacked Lakhisarai railway station Thursday morning and forcibly stopped some trains.

Nalanda district observed a total shutdown Thursday to protest the alleged killing of railway recruitment exam candidate Pawan Kumar in Mumbai by MNS activists.

The students were protesting the attacks by MNS activists on non-Maharashtrian candidates, particularly from Bihar, who were in Mumbai Sunday to take a railway recruitment examination.

The police at the Patna railway station filed a first information report (FIR) against MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his supporters for the assault on the students from Bihar.

"A case was registered on the basis of the statement of the students who returned here Tuesday after being assaulted by MNS activists," said D.N. Gupta, superintendent of railway police, Patna.

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