ABVP members protest at Bhagwanpur Chowk in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday. Picture by Satish Kumar

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members went on the rampage and blocked key roads here on Wednesday morning in protest against a fellow member’s death.

Seventeen-year-old Nirtiyam, an Intermediate of Arts student at Langat Singh College, was found stabbed in his room at a private hostel in Gobarshahi on Tuesday evening. He was an ABVP member.

Personnel of Sadar police station — under whose jurisdiction Gobarshahi area falls — lodged an FIR against four unknown persons after the murder came to light on Tuesday. A police team visited the victim’s room on Wednesday morning to investigate and recorded statements of the landlord and other boarders.

Sources said the landlord of the private hostel had seen four youths, their faces covered, entering Nirtiyam’s room. Later, when the door was found locked for a long time, fellow boarders opened the room to find the victim stabbed to death.

The only son of a village night guard, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Nirtiyam was a resident of Navanagar village under the jurisdiction of Sahebganj police station in the district, around 40km west of Muzaffarpur town.

Members of the students’ organisation, angry with the deteriorating law and order situation in the town, took to the streets and blocked the busy Bhagwanpur Chowk for at least five hours from 9am. They crippled traffic on National Highway 28, Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga road, Muzaffarpur-Patna road, and Muzaffarpur-Paroo road.

Syed Yasir, a passenger on his way to Patna from Darbhanga, had to cancel the trip after waiting for almost two hours for the traffic to move.

The protesters demanded the immediate arrest of Nirtiyam’s killers and safety and security of students living in private hostels.

Superintendent of police (city) Kumar Akley reached Bhagawanpur Chowk around 2pm, with heavy reinforcement to speak to the activists. On his promise to arrest the killers within 24 hours, the students’ organisation members lifted the blockade.

General secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Muzaffarpur, Kesri Nandan Sharma said: “The students will close Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, on June 4 if Nirtiyam’s killers are not arrested by Thursday morning.”