Train services in the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section of the South Eastern Railway were suspended for more than six hours after nearly 300 supporters squatted on the tracks at the Banstala Halt station in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district in support of the 48-hour bandh called by the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee. The bandh was called off on Monday.
A banner was put up across the track by the demonstrators in the afternoon. Though they dispersed shortly after about 90 minutes, services could not be restored till a security clearance was received at 7 p.m., a SER spokesperson said.
Several trains, including the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express from Bhubaneswar, were detained at various stations.
The bandh was called by the PSBJC in the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia to protest the killing in an encounter of a person whom the police said was a Maoist activist in the Binpur area of Paschim Medinipur district on September 25. While the police said he was a Maoist activist, the PSBJC has said the victim was an innocent villager.
