Basta: Six persons were injured after two groups clashed reportedly over booking of train tickets at Basta railway station in Balasore district Monday.
Police detained a person and tried to ascertain the reason behind the fight.
The incident triggered tension in the locality as thousands of residents burnt tyres on the main road to Basta railway station protesting the assault on some youths by members of a group.
Traders downed their shutters in the area while the police appealed for peace through public address systems.
The incident occurred when four youths were standing in a queue outside the ticket booking counter to purchase tickets for a Khurda Road-bound fast passenger train when some youths tried to overtake them to buy tickets.
This led to a scuffle between the two groups which soon escalated into a clash when the second group of youths assaulted the four youths.
Two IPS officers, an additional SPO, the IICs of Jaleshwar, Basta, Baliapal and Rupsa police stations, the sub-collector, the tehsildar and the block development officer rushed to the spot and tried to placate the protesters.
However, the agitators refused to relent and continued their stir from 6 am to 10 am.
While the members of a group staged protest by burning tyres near Tarini Square of Basta Bazaar, hundreds of men and women of another group staged protest near the Basta block office, it was learnt.
IICs Dhaneshwar Sahu of Basta police station, Surendra Dehuria of Baliapal police station, Chandan Ghadei of Jaleshwar police station and Ashok Kumar Nayak of Rupsa police station tried in vain to placate the irate protesters. Soon superintendent of police (SP) Niti Sekhar and additional SP Santosh Nayak reached the spot and took stock of the situation.
The situation was brought under control after the SP ordered the police personnel to evict the protesters from the road and threatened to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPc if they refused to heed.
Former minister Raghunath Mohanty rang up the ASP and urged the administration to make efforts for restoration of peace in the area. The injured were admitted to Basta community health centre. PNN
