New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Saturday sought adequate protection for party leader and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar after his cavalcade was attacked in Bihar.

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The left-wing party's general secretary D Raja took up the matter of providing security to Kanhaiya Kumar in a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Kanhaiya Kumar's cavalcade was attacked in Arrah on Friday (February 14) by a mob opposing his state-wide tour against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), seriously damaging the vehicle in which he was traveling and leaving several people injured.

"The purpose of my writing to you is to draw your attention and seek your intervention to stop the attacks on our comrade Kanhaiya Kumar, who is a member of the National Executive of our party and former president of JNUSU," Raja said in a letter to the Bihar Chief Minister.

"You are aware of the situation in the country today. The BJP led government at the centre has plunged the whole country into a turmoil bypassing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)," he wrote. 

Raja said, "it has become very clear by this time that CAA-NRC-NPR are to be understood as one entity". He said the CAA is discriminatory against one particular minority community and it is violative of the basic tenet on the citizenship of the country's Constitution.

Kanhaiya Kumar has been leading a Jan-Gan-Man yatra in Bihar against the CAA-NRC-NPR which started on January 30 from Bapudham, Champaran and is likely to conclude on February 27 at Patna. 

In the letter, Raja claimed there is a "huge response" to this campaign. "However, some forces and miscreants who are opposed to this campaign are targeting Com. Kanhaiya Kumar and attacking his convoy. Yesterday's attack near Arrah was fatal; somehow our comrade has escaped."

"In this regard, I draw your attention to what Bombay High Court has said, that is, people who want to agitate in a peaceful way cannot be called traitors, anti-nationals only because they want to oppose one law," he said.

Raja requested Nitish Kumar to intervene and provide adequate protection to Kanhaiya Kumar and the Jan-Gan-Man yatra and also to take action against the culprits who attacked him and the yatra.