Students block tracks at Dum Dum Cantonment. Picture by Biswanath Banik

Students and passengers blocked railway tracks at Dum Dum Cantonment station and threw stones at a train on Monday to protest the manhandling of a 50-year-old woman who was caught travelling without a ticket.

The Railway Protection Force lobbed tear gas shells and lathicharged the protesters, injuring 10.

Services on Eastern Railway’s Sealdah-Bongaon route were disrupted for nearly four hours. Three pairs of local trains were cancelled.

Trouble started around 2.15pm when Khadeja Bibi, a resident of Barasat, was caught travelling without a ticket and put on Chetana, the ticket-checking train. Three school students, too, were caught during the special drive against ticketless travel.

“The woman alleged that she was beaten up by RPF personnel,” a railway official said.

“We saw from a Bongaon-bound train that RPF personnel were slapping her and assaulting her with rifle butts. Some of our friends were beaten up when they protested,” said Ramu Dushit, a student of Class XI of Adarsha Vidyatan, in Dum Dum.

Passengers and local people set up a blockade on the tracks and Chetana was stuck. Police said they pelted stones at the train and were involved in fisticuffs with security officials. Railway officials said the agitation forced them to release Khadeja and the students.

The blockade was finally lifted at 3.45pm and Chetana could move.

But a fresh one started around 4.15pm. More than 350 people, mostly students of a local school, protested the lathicharge. The blockade was lifted around 5.50pm when senior officers of the RPF and the Government Railway Police assured the students that the matter would be looked into.