A 12-hour shutdown called by the opposition Trinamool Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) began in West Bengal with angry mobs torching a public bus.
Updated at 5.30 pm
KOLKATA: Life came to a grinding halt in West Bengal on Friday as sporadic violence marked the Opposition-sponsored statewide bandh in protest against Wednesday's police firing at Nandigram.
Bandh supporters, belonging to the opposition Trinamool Congress, Congress and SUCI, disrupted railway services by squatting on tracks, put up road blockades, attacked government offices and set ablaze vehicles in the state.
About 800 people were arrested on various charges as bandh supporters beat up government officials, set ablaze buses, attacked vehicles and disrupted rail and road traffic, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said.
Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said Congress supporters beat up the Additional District Magistrate and four top officials in North Dinajpur district. Deputy Magistrate Probhat Chatterjee was admitted to hospital in a critical condition, he said.
Twelve people, including two police officials were injured when bandh supporters clashed with law keepers in Jalpaiguri town while reports of clashes between rival party supporters were received from Birbhum.
Roads wore a deserted look as vehicles were off the road, while shops, markets, banks and business establishments did not open and educational institutions remained closed.
Most factories and mills in the Barrackpore industrial belt also remained closed though the state's IT sector and the tea gardens functioned normally.
Deputy Commissioner (South) Ajay Kumar said some people left three trucks blocking the intersection of road near Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's South Kolkata residence at Palm Avenue a little before he returned home from the Writers' Buildings.
Police, however, cleared the road by removing the vehicles before the chief minister's convoy reached there.
The bandh supporters set afire eight state government buses in the city while train services in Howrah and Sealdah divisions were hit following squatting on railway tracks. Several long distance trains remained detained at various places. The squatters blocked tracks at Uttarpara, Rishra, Serampore, Rampurhat and other stations in Howrah division.
However, about a dozen flights belonging to different airlines took off for their destinations on Friday morning.
In Nandigram in East Midnapore district, tension prevailed in the villages two days after the police firing that killed 14 persons. Trinamool Congress workers blocked Chandipur-Nandigram road with logs and boulders. Blockades were also reported from Mecheda, Nandakumar and Tamluk areas of the district.
The strike was called by the Trinamool Congress, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Socialist Unity Centre of India in protest against the police action in which at least 14 people were killed on Wednesday.
While the Trinamool Congress, Congress and SUCI called a dawn-to-dusk bandh, the BJP gave a call for a 24-hour strike.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}