WB: Hawkers demonstrate at Baruipur station, hurl bombs, attack railway engineer and running trains

According to reports, when the RPF went to evict the unauthorized stalls from Baruipur station compound, as many as 1200 hawkers, under the leadership of TMC's labour wing INTTUC, started protests. They allegedly hurled at least 14 crude bombs.

More thousands of hawkers from other nearby stations have joined the demonstration.

At least four railway staffers, including senior section engineer of railway Samar Ghosh, and few journalists were injured, when angry protesters attacked them. Hawkers reportedly pelted stones aiming at running trains, which left several passengers injured.

Demonstrating hawkers' leader Jayanta Bhadra told IBNS, "We will never allow railways to remove our stall without proper rehabilitation. They are evicting us without sending any notice. If police forcefully try to evict our stalls, we will block railway tracks at several places near Baruipur."

Claiming that hawkers did not hurt anyone, Bhadra said, "RPF fired bullets in air. Our men neither threw bombs nor attack anyone."

CPRO of Eastern Railways, Ravi Mahapatra told IBNS, "We announced to remove all unauthorized stalls from station compound. There is no need to send notice to evict hawkers, who are running illegal and unauthorized stalls at railway's area."

However, a large number of RPF personnel have been deployed to the scene. Tension is still on at Baruipur station as hawkers are holding demonstration, march and meeting at the place.

Till the latest update came in, railway has announced to postpone the eviction drive for the day.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)