July 17: Protests in Mashrak
Just a few feet from the school that they attended every day, 12 children were buried this morning by devastated families in the village of Masrakh in Bihar as angry residents armed with poles and sticks took to the streets, 60 kms from the capital of Patna.
21 children have died as a result of the free lunch they were served in that school yesterday. Officials say it appears that the meal of lentils, vegetables and rice was contaminated with insecticides; a forensic report is due later this evening.
Another 30 children remain ill in hospital in Chhapra, some of them lying listless on stretchers, intravenous drips attached to their tiny arms.
"My children had gone to school to study. They came back home crying, and said it hurts," one distraught father told NDTV. "I took them into my arms, but they kept crying, saying their stomach hurt very badly."
As weeping parents mourned, political parties delivered stunning responses.The ruling Janata Dal United said it is being targeted by "a deep-rooted conspiracy." Spokesperson KC Tyagi said, " The way the opposition of Bihar is responding, I feel that it is a big conspiracy. They want to destabilise the Bihar Government."
The BJP, which was booted out last month from a 17-year partnership with the Janata Dal United, backed some locals who said that officials took too long to organise ambulances for children after they fell violently ill at school.
"It took 15 hours to evacuate the children. This is criminal negligence and the state government is responsible for this," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP.
A large mob this morning smashed windows of police buses and other vehicles and turned over a police booth in Chhapra, the main city of Saran district where the school is located.