Normal life was hit in many parts of West Bengal due to the BJP-sponsored 12-hour statewide general strike on Wednesday.
The strike was observed from 6 am to 6 pm to protest the police action against participants in the 'Nabanna Abhijan' or the March to Bengal Secretariat rally on Thursday. It had been organised to protest the gruesome rape and murder of a woman doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata earlier this month.
The suburban train services were among the worst hit, especially at Howrah station and the two sections of the Sealdah division. BJP supporters blocked railway tracks at several places, causing long delays due to many locals being stopped.
In many places, minor scuffles broke out between BJP supporters and police as the latter were trying to remove the blockades. At quite a few places, BJP protesters had dumped themselves on the railway tracks, making it difficult for the police to lift them up.
At the time of filing of this report, rail blockades were being reported from several areas in West Bengal, including South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Nadia, and North 24 Parganas.
BJP and Trinamool Congress workers clashed in some areas of the state, as supporters of the saffron party came out to the streets early in the day to oppose the strike. Avtar Singh, a BJP supporter, was hacked to death by a gang of miscreants in Konangar in Hooghly district, while Pradip Kundu, another BJP supporter, was beaten to death in Asansol in West Burdwan district.
Public vehicles were also damaged in Cooch Behar district.
The state government, on the other hand, had declared that it would reimburse the losses of merchants and business establishments because of possible incidents of stray violence during the strike.
As it so happened, the strike was called on a day when the student wing of the Trinamool Congress, the TMCP, had planned foundation day celebrations, to which the Chief Minister was invited to address a gathering. It was also the day another major state cabinet meeting was in the offing.
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