Strike near total in north - Six buses ransacked in North Dinajpur and Malda

A motorcycle crosses a deserted stretch of Church Road in Siliguri on Thursday.
Picture by Kundan Yolmo

TT, April 30: The 12-hour strike called by the Left and BJP turned out to be near total across the north Bengal districts today.

There were sporadic incidents of violence and at least six government buses were ransacked by suspected bandh supporters. Police have arrested around 300 bandh supporters for resorting to picketing and taking out processions during the strike in different areas. All of them were later released.

The bandh, however, failed to make any impact on the hills and also on the tea industry of the region.

Government offices, educational institutions and banks were open. Government buses ran on different routes.

In Siliguri, 32 people, supporters of the CPM or the BJP, were arrested from three locations. Saman Pathak, the Darjeeling district Citu president, and some other CPM workers were arrested at Hill Cart Road near Hashmi Chowk. Another group of Left supporters was arrested from Burdwan Road in Siliguri.

After some time, a group of BJP supporters was arrested from Baghajatin Park when they were planning a rally in the area. However, no untoward incident was reported in Siliguri.

In Malda, suspected CPM workers ransacked a government bus on NH81 at Gobindapurpara in Chanchal.

The bus was on its way to Calcutta when bandh supporters pelted it with stones. Aizul Haque, the bus driver, suffered injuries and is under treatment at Chanchal subdivisional hospital.

Later, another NBSTC bus was ransacked at Disco More near Sahapur on the Malda-Nalagola state highway.

The bandh supporters also raised a blockade on the rail track at Eklakhi station. It started at 8am and continued for one-and-a-half hours. The Malda Town-Katihar Passenger train was delayed because of the blockade. However, the police later cleared the track.

In Malda, Trinamul took out a rally in protest against the bandh today. State minister Krishnendu Chowdhury took part in the rally and urged people to defy the strike.

In North Dinajpur, around 10.30am, bandh supporters ransacked three NBSTC buses, heading for Siliguri, near Baroduari area located around 7km from Raiganj town. Later, around 1.30pm, another bus was ransacked in the Paschim Birnagar area of the town.

In Alipurduar district, some suspected Trinamul workers ransacked the zonal committee office of the CPM in Falakata.

In Jalpaiguri, several senior CPM leaders, including former district secretary Manik Sanyal, district secretary Salil Acharya and some others were arrested when they tried to stop vehicles. However, all of them were later released.

No incident of violence was reported from South Dinajpur and Cooch Behar districts.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said: "People have defied the strike called by the Left and BJP."