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Bengal suspends internet services in 6 districts over anti-CAA stir
On Sunday, several trains connecting Kolkata to north Bengal and the North-east remained cancelled. Services of the South Eastern Railway were limping back to normal.
The West Bengal government on Sunday suspended internet services in six districts as violent demonstrations continued to rock the state for the third consecutive day, with mobs ransacking stations and trains, blocking highways and railway tracks and clashing with the police in various districts to protest against the amended citizenship act.
On Sunday, several trains connecting Kolkata to north Bengal and the North-east remained cancelled. Services of the South Eastern Railway were limping back to normal.
“Some outsiders, instigated by communal forces, are conspiring to spread violence across the state. Left with no option, internet services are being suspended in Malda, Murshidabad, Howrah, North Dinajpur districts, and in some areas of South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas as a precautionary measure,” said a release issued by the state government.
The districts located along the India-Bangladesh border and several other parts of the state have been witnessing violence since Friday.
A state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Andal airport in West Burdwan district where he had a stopover on his way to Jharkhand’s Dumka for an election rally. The delegation apprised him of the law and order situation in the state.
Meanwhile, mobs ransacked a station and at least two trains at Akra in the southern fringes of Kolkata. The police had to lathi charge and fire tear gas shells as protesters hurled bricks at securitymen and set the station’s ticket counter on fire. A few people including passengers and policemen were injured.
With trains being cancelled or diverted, thousands of passengers were stranded. CM Mamata Banerjee directed the administration to provide food and water to passengers stranded in Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.
While the BJP’s Bengal unit chief, Dilip Ghish, blamed CM Banerjee for the violence, the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Kalyan Banerjee alleged that goons hired by the BJP was vandalising government and public property.
