Around 900 women were trapped inside Bikash Bhavan, the education secretariat, till late on Thursday. More than one of them was pregnant, and they urged their bosses to find a way to get them out of confinement, officials said on Friday.

A senior education department official said they had to seek police help, considering the plight of the women, particularly those pregnant.

“We tried to reason with the protesters, urging them to let the employees return home. We also told them that many of those trapped were women. But the protesters did not relent. Left with no choice, we called the police for help,” the official said.

Additional director-general (law and order) Jawed Shamim told a news conference on Friday that a pregnant woman was feeling unwell and wanted to go home. “Who would have been responsible had anything happened to her?” he said.

When the police threw a cordon to make way for the trapped employees out of Bikash Bhavan around 9pm on Thursday, many who were seen running out were women.

Around 7pm on Thursday, some employees, including an elderly woman, were heard requesting the protesting school staff to let them go as they came from remote areas.

One of the teachers leading the protests told them: “Please stay confined for a day. We will give you water, food and medicines. Don’t worry. But we will not let you go.”

An official of the school education department said an elderly couple came from Cooch Behar to discuss a pension-related issue early on Thursday.

“They repeatedly approached the protesters to let them go as they had a train to catch. The request fell on deaf ears. The couple managed to leave at 9pm, after the police intervened. What was the point in confining visitors?” the official asked.

The official said over 3,000 people, including women employees and visitors, remained gheraoed till 9pm.

As many women remained stuck till late on Thursday, the administration at Bikash Bhavan asked the women employees not to come to work on Friday.

An employee Metro spoke to said she had to undergo X-rays as she had suffered injuries to her limbs and waist when she tried to push through the crowd thatwas preventing them from leaving.

“If I were asked to go to office today, I would not be able to,” she said.

The secretariat has 10 floors with 50 departments and thousands of employees. Every day, hundreds of teachers and other education staff go there for official work.

On Friday, the corridors of the education secretariat, usually abuzz with activities, looked deserted.

Many of the visitors who came to Bikash Bhavan were being turned away by security personnel who referred to what unfolded on Thursday. They told the visitors not to take a risk and come next week.

The employees who came on Friday were asked to leave the office by 3pm, keeping in view the harassment they faced on Thursday.

At 4pm on Thursday, four hours into the siege, one of the faces of the protesting teachers was heard saying: “We will not confine the visitors. We will go through their credentials to determine who among the trapped are visitors and let them go.”

But independent accounts suggest the visitors were not spared.

Many officials on Friday wondered why anyone should allow random protesters to check their “credentials”.

“We can understand their grievances after the Supreme Court on April 3 terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching employees in government-aided schools following allegations that the hiring exercise conducted by the school service commission in 2016 was flawed,” the education official said.

“The fact that the Supreme Court, in a follow-up order on April 17, allowed the 15,403 teachers not specifically found tainted to return to school still December and draw salary till then has left them further agitated. But this does not mean that they can take the law into their hands and endanger the lives of others,” the official said.

The protesters, teachers who are members of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum argue that they are suffering because of alleged irregularities committed by the state government and its officials.

Education minister Bratya Basu did not come to office