Scattered incidents of violence marked the Bihar bandh called by the NDA and Pappu Yadav’s Indian Federal Democratic Party (IFDP) today. Yadav’s supporters set two buses afire and smashed windscreens of many cars. Police said IFDP supporters torched the buses as they being taken away under preventive custody.In some places, police resorted to lathi charge and lobbed teargas shells. Over 300 bandh supporters were detained. Police today claimed they had caught members of the Sultan Mian gang that was behind the kidnapping of Dr Bhagat Singh. They arrested Durgesh Sharma along with six others and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.However, Dr Singh, who was released by his captors last night, said he couldn’t identify any of them. Meanwhile, hospitals across the state started functioning after the IMA called off its strike. In fact Dr Singh says he couldn’t believe it when his captors told him he was free to go. ‘‘I thought it was a joke. I said I had no money; only one nursing home and for that too I was repaying a loan but I could raise some amount.‘‘The kidnapper told me to give whatever I felt like. And that it wasn’t a problem if I couldn’t pay at all.’’ Singh was then blindfolded and dropped off on the outskirts of Patna from where he caught a bus.‘‘I didn’t have even a rupee in my pocket but the bus driver recognised me and said I didn’t have to pay,’’ Singh said. He went to the railway station and from there took an autorickshaw and got home.Singh was kept blindfolded in a small room but, he says, he was treated well.
