BJP's bandh affects train services

Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists on Wednesday damaged the VIP lounge at the Indore airport and delayed the departure of a Mumbai-bound flight during the bandh protesting the terrorist attack in Ayodhya, police said.

BJP and VHP workers forced their entry into the airport, damaged the VIP lounge and delayed the Indore-Mumbai-Indore Jet Airways flight for some time, police added.

Indore Collector Vivek Agrawal later told PTI that the police have cleared the airport and flight operations would resume soon.

Meanwhile, the saffron workers stopped the trains near Indore railway station as part of their protest, the sources said.

• What the Ayodhya attack signifies

Train services in Jharkhand and Orissa were also disrupted.

Hundreds of BJP activists and Shiv Sena workers squatted on the tracks at Tatanagar station.

Railway sources said the Puri-New Delhi Purusotham Express and Tata-Howrah Steel Express were detained at Tatanagar railway station paralysing the services in Chakradharpur division of South-eastern Railway.

Efforts by railway officials to persuade the agitators were in vain, the sources said.

There was no report of violence across the steel city where the security has been tightened.

Several schools and some shops were seen to be open despite the bandh.

Similarly, in Orissa, train services were affected and educational institutions remained closed at many places.

The Howrah-Chennai mail was stopped at Chatrapur station and Howrah-Yashwantpur Express, Palasa-Bhubaneswar DMU at Berhampur railway station after activists squatted on the railway tracks, official sources said.