Four mechanised vans were torched and the arterial Malda-Balurghat highway was blocked as bus-mini bus operators turned their ire on the 'illegal plying' of the vehicles in Malda district.
Police said while three mechanised vans, all unlicensed, were set ablaze at Gajole bus stand, another was torched near Bamongola by the agitating operators union.
The operators then blocked the Balurghat State Highway for over two hours crippling vehicular movement to press for immediate withdrawal of the service.
The bus-mini bus-trekker association also threatened to launch an indefinite transport strike in the district if the 'unsafe and unlicensed' indigenously motorised vans, locally known as 'bhutbhuti', were not stopped from plying on long distance routes immediately.
A 'bhutbhuti' owner claimed their service was of great help to the commuter due to absence of any proper transport network in interior areas.
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