NEW DELHI, 3 November 2007 — Former chief minister of Bihar and now the opposition leader Rabri Devi was arrested in Patna yesterday while protesting against the attack on journalists by ruling Janata Dal-United goon-turned legislator Anant Singh and his henchmen.

Rabri, along with several of her Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislators, was arrested for breaching peace and disrupting law and order during a shutdown called by the RJD against the JD-U legislator’s brutal attack on journalists on Thursday.

This is the first time that Rabri, wife of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, has protested aggressively on the roads against the two-year-old National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Nitish Kumar.

She led hundreds of RJD workers and leaders from her official residence at Circular Road to Bailey Road and was seen shouting slogans against the attacks on media persons with a green flag in her hand.

During her protest, she said it was shameful that journalists were not safe and free to work in the state. Normal life was badly affected in the state with clashes between protesters and the police reported from dozens of places. Nearly 3,000 protesters have been arrested across the state during the shutdown called by the RJD.

The Congress party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) and the Lok Janshakti Party promptly expressed support to the RJD-sponsored strike.

“Hundreds of activists belonging to the opposition were arrested for disrupting law and order. There were reports of clashes between supporters of the strike and the police at several places across the state,” A.R. Sinha, the state police chief, said. Schools and business establishments were closed in most of the districts and only a few buses plied on the roads.

“Traffic was paralyzed due to blockade of roads and national highways at several places by protesters,” a police official said. Security personnel were deployed in large numbers across the state to avoid any untoward incident.

President of the Bihar Public School and Children’s Welfare Association D.K. Singh said that all the private schools remained closed yesterday due to the shutdown.

Anant Singh and his supporters had beaten up two journalists who had come to interview him and then attacked several more media persons when they protested against the first attack Thursday.

As political parties condemned the brazen assault, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered the administration to act - albeit five hours late. The police arrested Anant Singh and four others including his personal and official bodyguards.

The chief judicial magistrate here sent Anant Singh — who faces over two dozen criminal charges including that of murder — to Patna’s Beur Jail until Nov. 13.

“The state government was virtually forced to send Anant Singh to jail after the hue and cry by media persons and opposition leaders,” RJD leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan said.

It all began when NDTV reporter Prakash Singh and his cameraman Habib Ali went to Anant Singh’s house for his reaction to allegations that he had raped and murdered a young woman, Reshma Khatoon.

The woman had sent a letter to the chief minister, police officials and media persons before her death, accusing Anant Singh, his associate Mukesh Singh and a bodyguard of the legislator of raping her.