Murshidabad sees fresh unrest with highway, rail traffic blocked over migrant worker assault

Kolkata: Fresh unrest gripped West Bengal's Murshidabad district on Saturday as protesters again blocked National Highway-12 and railway tracks at Beldanga, a day after violent agitations over the death of a migrant worker had snapped road and rail links between the state's northern and southern partsfor hours, police said.

Hundreds of locals gathered on the highway at Barua More in Beldanga, bringing traffic on NH-12 to a standstill and triggering long queues of stranded vehicles, while protesters also damaged a railway gate and attempted to disrupt train services, they said.

The latest flashpoint was an allegation that another migrant worker - Anisur Sheikh- from the area was brutally assaulted in Bihar, reigniting public anger that had barely subsided after Friday's violence.


Police deployed a large contingent at the protest site, while local MLA Humayun Kabir reached the spot and held talks with demonstrators and officials to defuse the situation.

Officials said efforts were underway to restore normalcy and prevent the agitation from spiralling into fresh violence.

Tension has been simmering in Beldanga since Friday following the death of 36-year-old Alauddin Sheikh, a resident of the Sujapur Kumarpur gram panchayat area, whose body was recovered from his rented accommodation in Jharkhand, where he worked as a scrap dealer.

Family members alleged that he was beaten to death and later hung to make it appear like a suicide, triggering widespread outrage after his body was brought home.

Saturday's agitation comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend government programmes and address a public rally.