The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) here was teeming with perplexed Bihar-bound passengers on Wednesday after their train Howrah Express was cancelled following some violent protests in Bihar where local students torched five bogies of the Vikramshila Express at Barh station in the north-eastern state.

After the Howrah Express (via Allahabad) was cancelled, the station was full of passengers huddled in groups, lounging and lying about while waiting for news about the train’s new departure time on Thursday morning. While some of the people from Bihar at the station said they were leaving the city for personal reasons, some admitted that they wanted to flee the city due to the unrest that has been plaguing it after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers took to the streets.

“We are worried that this time too, like the previous time, we will be targeted and beaten up,” said one native of Bihar, who did not wish to be named.

He added, “We heard about the incident that took place in Bihar and we have decided that we don’t want to take the same route, so we took this train.”

This passenger and his friends, all construction workers at a site in Vikhroli, have decided that they will return to Mumbai only when there is a semblance of peace once more. “We will go there for two or three months and then come back once everything is okay,” said another passenger. “Everywhere people are being beaten up. We have heard about the violence in Bandra and Worli and Kalyan,” he added.

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