Kolkata:
Traffic was disrupted for several hours in Kolkata on Monday on the arterial road from Rajabazar in the north to Park Circus in the south as hundreds of young men from some local madrasas set up a road blockade around 3 pm.
Commuters had to walk long distances as taxis and buses disappeared from roads. Private vehicles had to take detours as police put up barricades.
The protest was a fallout of an incident on Saturday, in which the General Railway Police (GRP) had questioned 62 madrasa students who disembarked at the Sealdah station from Purnea in Bihar, apparently on their way to a madrasa near Pune. The students, mostly teenagers, were accompanied by a couple of maulanas.
The students were allegedly asked for identity papers. Some allegedly didn't have proper ones and the GRP was not satisfied by the explanations given by the adults accompanying them. The adults were detained and the students were sent to a child welfare home in Barasat on the outskirts of the city.
As news spread, locals from madrasas in Rajabazar set up a road blockade. The blockade moved later to the Sealdah flyover, where attempts were allegedly made to set a bus on fire. Some taxis were also damaged.
Around 9 pm, protesters gathered in central Kolkata, blocking roads. Some groups were seen squatting as late as midnight. Some protesters were shouting slogans and pushing metal road dividers to the ground.
According to the police, there were no reports of any violence. "Situation ok," one senior police officer said.
On Monday evening, the students were being put on a train to Purnea under a police escort. The status of the detained maulanas is not clear.