Wednesday, January 26 2005 11:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Dismayed at the abduction of their fellow pupils in Bihar, students of private schools stayed away from cultural programmes, continued with their relay fast and formed human chains as Republic Day was celebrated with little fanfare in Patna today (Jan 26, 2005).

Ravikant, a student in the DAV public school, was kidnapped from Biharsharif town in Nalanda district on Monday (Jan 24, 2005) sending the police establishment into a tizzy barely six days after the abduction of Kislay, a student of Delhi Public School in Patna.

Even as the protests continued against their kidnapping, yet another student of the DAV public school (Bhagalpur), Dipa Kumar, went missing yesterday (Jan 25, 2005). Perturbed over the kidnapping of the boys, students of private and public schools in Patna did not participate in the cultural programmes and turned up in fewer numbers than previous years for hoisting of flags today.

The office of a social organisation 'Oxygen', which is organising the students' stir, was, however flooded with students of different schools who volunteered to join the relay fast by their peers.

The students have launched relay fast for an indefinite period till Kislay was recovered. The students are also not having tiffins at schools and have urged the school staff to avoid taking lunch at schools as a mark of solidarity with them.

The students have decided to gherao the Raj Bhavan on Friday (Jan 28, 2005) to mount pressure on the state administration for release of the students.