KOLKATA, 1 November 2007 — Dozens of people were injured in clashes with police and buses were set on fire in eastern India yesterday during a strike called to protest the killing of villagers opposed to industry.
The strike shut schools, offices and businesses across the communist-ruled state of West Bengal and transport was hit as protesters blocked rail tracks, witnesses and police said.
Shops and commercial establishments downed their shutters and train services and flights were disrupted as the 12-hour shutdown began to take effect in the eastern state. Schools and colleges were also closed as activists of the state’s opposition Trinamool Congress Party protested against the violence in Nandigram, a village 120 kilometers south of the state capital Kolkata.
“Around 20 people were injured in the clashes,” city police chief Gautam Chakraborty said, adding that almost 1,500 people were detained as police tried to remove barricades set up across intersections by the protesters. Other report said dozens were injured. Trinamool party chief Mamata Banerjee declared the daylong shutdown successful. “The strike was a total success because the people of the state are completely against the state-sponsored terrorism in Nandigram,” the fiery leader told reporters.
Six people were killed this month in clashes between activists of the Marxist party, which wants to set up a Chinese-style industrial enclave, and villagers opposed to the acquisition of 14,500 acres of land for Indonesia’s Salim Group to set up a petrochemical hub.
In March, 14 people were killed when police opened fire in Nandigram to clear protesters from an area designated for the project.
D.D. Chowdhury, manager of Kolkata’s international airport, said some flights were delayed yesterday while Deepak Jha, spokesman for the Eastern Railways, said train services were badly hit.
Senior police officer Raj Kanojia said: “Security has been put on high alert at the railway stations, government offices and market places.”
