Angul, April 10: Villagers in and around Talcher Coalfield today gheraoed the local police station in protest against the arrest of four persons in connection with assault on colliery officials.

Yesterday, local villagers resorted to violence and vandalism at a local colliery office, demanding their village be acquired by the coal company and measures be initiated to control pollution due to mining and transportation of coal.

Later in the evening, the police intervened and arrested four residents of Dera village, a part of the mob.

The arrest was made acting on the complaint lodged by colliery security officer M. Mahanty.

For the past five days, the villagers had continued to paralyse the coal production and dispatch from two mega mines named Ananta and Bhubaneswari at Talcher. The mines produce around 90,000 tonnes coal per day, according to a colliery official.

Besides, the villagers had forcibly shut down the other mines in the locality as well.

Last evening, a few officials, including one project officer, were attacked in the general manager's office of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. The officials today condemned the incident and urged the district administration to book all the culprits.

"We condemn the local people-induced vandalism at the general manager's office and other colliery units in the past four days. It has become insecure for executives to work here due to such violence inflicted on the colliery officials. We demand security for us," said Sahab Singh, president of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited Officers' Association.