Hatred against Bengalis--a common phenomenon...!!! Another lesson for the sleeping Bengalis...!!!

The Telegraph Calcutta, India Thursday, January 6, 2011 OUR CORRESPONDENT

Santiniketan, Jan. 5: A group of Visva-Bharati students returning from a study trip to Nainital were allegedly beaten up and the girls in the team harassed on a train while it was passing through Bihar last night. The group, consisting 69 postgraduate students of ancient history, were returning from the week-long trip to the Uttarakhand hill station on the Bagh Express. They had taken the train from Kathgodam, near Nainital, on Monday afternoon. “When the train reached Bihar’s Barauni station at 10.30 last night, around 30 youths forcibly entered our reserved compartment and ordered us to make room for them,” said Saurav Mondal, a second-year MA student who was part of the Visva-Bharati team. “Some of the youths pushed us and sat on our seats. They also started teasing the girls in our group,” Mondal said. He said the youths refused to listen when they were told it was a reserved compartment. “When we tried to stop them from teasing the girls, the youths slapped and punched us,” Mondal added. He said another group of around 12 youths entered the compartment after the train reached the next station, Chouri Choura. “Some of them were armed with bhojalis. I suspect the first group of hooligans had called them up when we started protesting,” Mondal said. The student said the second group was “more aggressive” than the first. “They flung our luggage onto the platform,” Mondal said. “However, the youths got off after the train started pulling out of Chouri Choura station.” Some of the other students, who requested anonymity, alleged the ticket examiner and the railway protection force (RPF) jawan on the train refused to help. “Both the RPF jawan and the ticket examiner said they could do nothing. They even asked us to refrain from pulling the chain when the ruffians were throwing out our luggage,” a student said. The students got off at Burdwan around 9.50am and took another train to Bolpur. They submitted a written complaint to the station manager after the train reached Bolpur at 12.30pm. “We had contacted the Chhatra Parishad leaders of our varsity. They had told us to file a complaint once we reached Bolpur,” a student said. The complaint has been addressed to the divisional railway manager of Howrah. “I have forwarded the complaint to my seniors,” said Mihir Ranjan Sarkar, the Bolpur station manager. Ananda Sahur, one of the teachers who escorted the students on their trip, was not available for comment. Sahur is the head of Visva-Bharati’s ancient history department. The assaulted students, however, could not inform varsity authorities about the incident as Visva-Bharati remains closed on Wednesdays. Varsity spokesperson Amitabha Choudhury said: “I have come to know that something had happened to some of our students on a train. But no one has informed us officially yet.”