Anti reservation agitation : Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha manhandled in Hajipur, 12 injured in Bihar

According to  reports, the minister  was on his way to Champaran, where the 100th anniversary of Champaran Satyagraha was to be honoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by ushering in 'Swachhagraha', when the incident took place.

However, no details about the incident have been reported.

  Kushwaha, who hails from OBC community, is the president of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which is an ally of the BJP.

According to reports, pitched battles between anti-reservation protesters and reservation supporters took place in Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Lakhisarai and Arrah districts in which at least a dozen people were injured.

In Muzaffarpur, policemen, including ASP, DSP, were chased away by angry mobs in Gobarsahi area.

In Arrah, protesters managed to stop a train.

Internet services have been suspended in Nainital, Uttarakhand, many parts of western Uttar Pradesh, including Saharanpur and parts of Alwar.

As messages about Bharat Bandh began circulating on WhatsApp, the union home ministry asked states to be on alert. The call for shutdown, exactly a week after Dalit groups' country-wide strike and violence, appears to be a protest against caste-based reservation in jobs and education.

In the nation-wide shutdown called by Dalit groups on April 2, nearly a dozen people died in the violence across five states. Madhya Pradesh saw the most casualties, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan