Broken chairs lie overturned at Howrah station after the mob fury over the delayed arrival of a local train on Wednesday morning. Picture by Gopal Senapati

Passengers took turns in punching a train driver and a guard before ravaging Howrah station to protest a local train’s delayed arrival on Wednesday, prompting the railways to cry political conspiracy over the “organised” manner of the mob attack.

Witnesses said violence erupted the moment the Bandel local pulled into platform number 1 at 10.25am, around 30 minutes behind schedule. Rush-hour passengers bristling at the delay dragged both the driver and the guard out of their cabins and rained blows on them.

“We can’t move without getting the signal. Why blame us?” pleaded the driver, but in vain.

Within minutes, the mob fury spread to the station superintendent’s office, located to the right of the landmark twin-faced clock. Pieces of furniture lay broken and flower pots smashed as the mob, including many armed with sticks and stones, targeted anything that caught their eye.

The glass panes of 10 ticket counters were shattered using office bags and backpacks like boxing gloves. Several computers were overturned.

As the mayhem continued, passengers of local and long-distance trains ran for cover, dragging their luggage. The 20-minute rampage ended only when police baton-charged the mob.

Bally resident Pradip Sengupta stepped out of the subway that leads to the ticket counters looking terrified. “They were very violent. We ran to safety,” said his wife, still shaking from the shock.

Many of those who were waiting for the Bandel local, however, defended the violence. “The train waits for half an hour near the Liluah car shed every day and we get late for work. Nobody cares. They will take note now,” said a man in his thirties.

The train, which had left Bandel at 8.50am, was supposed to reach Howrah at 9.55am.

A railway spokesperson blamed the delay on the late running of fog-hit long-distance trains. “It’s a chain reaction triggered by weather,” said the chief public relations officer of Eastern Railway, Samir Goswami.

The railways called it a pre-planned attack with “sticks and stones”.

Divisional railway manager Parthasarathi Mandal said: “The aim was to scuttle the Railway Board chairman’s visit on Wednesday. We shall identify the attackers.”

Railway police superintendent (Howrah) Rabindranath Mukhopadhyay claimed that CCTV footage had confirmed the presence of people armed with sticks in the mob.

A man who works in one of the damaged PCOs also said he saw some of the attackers wielding sticks.

Railway police have detained nine persons. One of them, Sandip Das, works in a photocopy shop outside Bankshall court and lives in Chinsurah. Sandip told Metro over the phone that the Bandel local would routinely arrive late, delaying him for work.

So did he give vent to his anger on Wednesday? “I was not part of the vandalism,” Sandip insisted. Kushal Mutsuddi, who lives in Ashokenagar, off Tollygunge, said he was picked up while walking towards the new station complex.

Many saw in the Wednesday morning mayhem a trend of violent reprisal reflected in a series of recent incidents from the campus to the platform.

“From blood-soaked college polls and road-hog rallies to incidents like the assault on two brothers who had asked some youths to make way for their car, the absence of strong administrative action is taking its toll,” said a sociologist who did not wish to be named.

“People learn by seeing and if there is no punishment, the wrong becomes the norm,” said psychologist Nilanjana Sanyal.

Like the road-hog rallies at Metro Channel that everyone rails against but can’t prevent.