Trucks burn on Jugsalai-Station Road early on Wednesday; (above) city SP Jatin Narwal visits the spot with SCCI members in the morning. Pictures by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, July 28: Ten trucks were charred and a policeman injured in a raging inferno and mob fury triggered by the death of two teenagers in an accident barely 500 metres from Jugsalai police station in the small hours today.

The chain of violent events also choked the Jugsalai-Station road — an arterial goods transport route — for more than 12 hours.

Sources said four youths were returning from the Dhatkidih graveyard around 1.15am after attending Shab-e-Barat rituals when their bike rammed into a grain truck near Jugsalai level crossing.

While Mohammed Arsad (18) and Mohammed Tahir (15), both residents of Khwaja Colony in Golmuri, died on the spot, two others — Mohammad Taslim and Ashad Khan — sustained multiple injuries. The two were taken to Tata Main Hospital.

News of the accident spread like wild fire. Members of the minority community assembled on Jugsalai-Station Road in large numbers and started smashing windshields of passing trucks.

A patrol team from Jugsalai police station reached the spot and managed to quell the protest, albeit for a very short duration. The agitators soon returned in larger numbers and started torching vehicles on the road. As many as eight trucks and two dumpers bore the brunt.

A reinforced police team was countered with a volley of stones. Three persons, including a policeman, were injured in the ensuing clash.

By the time senior police officers, including East Singhbhum SSP Naveen Kumar Singh and city SP Jatin Narwal, reached the spot, Jugsalai had turned into a virtual battlefield. Police had to fire 15 rounds in the air to disperse the unruly mob, which had unleashed terror for two hours.

SSP Singh blamed the bikers for the accident. “The truck was not speeding. The bike was. Besides, four were riding on one bike. They lost balance and rammed into the truck,” he said.

He confirmed that 10 vehicles had been torched and said a case would be registered against those responsible.Protesters, on the other hand, blamed the district administration for not declaring the road as a no-entry zone for Shab-e-Barat.

Ire spilled on Bistupur-Jugsalai-Station Road this afternoon, too, when members of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) set up a blockade, demanding compensation for traders whose grain and edible oil consignments were destroyed in the inferno. The protest left the arterial road choked till 1.30pm.

SCCI secretary Suresh Sonthalia, who led the protest, said grain and edible oil worth Rs 50 lakh were damaged. “The charred trucks were headed for Krishi Bazar Utpad Samiti in Parsudih.”

The blockade was withdrawn only after East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Himani Pandey assured SCCI members that she would recommend compensation for traders to the state administration.