New Delhi, Oct 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Demonstrators in Bihar staged street marches and political parties demanded an investigation on Monday after a Bihar resident was shot dead by police in Mumbai.
The shooting and protests were the latest examples of conflict between the thousands of workers from impoverished areas of northern and eastern India seeking work, and anti-immigrant groups in Mumbai led by ambitious politicians.
The 23-year-old man from Patna was killed inside a bus in Mumbai after he fired a shot and pointed his gun at passengers.
Television pictures showed the man gesturing that he wanted to speak to someone, before he was shot. Police initially said he was trying to take hostages, then changed their story and said the man probably wanted to meet the city's police chief.
Witnesses said the man repeatedly demanded a meeting with Raj Thackeray, leader of the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS), a militant Hindu group based in the Mumbai area. Thackeray is accused of fuelling anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of national and local elections due next year.
MNS supporters were charged by the police last week with beating up hundreds of migrant workers who had come to Mumbai from eastern and northern India.
A police spokesman said they would investigate the circumstances leading to the shooting, but politicians from Bihar demanded a judicial probe.
"This man could have been easily overpowered, there should be a judicial probe into his death," Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said in Patna, as protesters burned effigies of Thackeray and other leaders in the streets.
More than 100 people were injured last week in northern and eastern India in violent reprisals for the attacks in Mumbai, a sign of the strains that inequality is placing on society as some areas enjoy an economic boom and others are left behind.
bdnews24.com/amt/1141 hrs.
