Kolkata, March 26: Protestors from Orissa's Kalinganagar have found a meeting ground with agitators of Nandigram — land acquisition. A 45-member team of agitators of Kalinganagar, heading for Nandigram, was intercepted by the West Bengal police at Kharagpur.

The police were tipped off by their Orissa counterparts that a Maoist squad was entering the state. The group was released after they were interrogated and had their photographs taken.

The members belonged to Bistapan Birodhi Janmanch and Lok Pakshya, organisations that spearheaded the agitation against the Tata's integrated steel project in Kalinganagar, Orissa.

A number of them were found to be members of CPI-ML (New Democracy) and National Alliance for People's Movement.On 2 January, agitators from various parts of Andhra Pradesh, Nandigram and Singur had held a meeting at Kalinganagar, commemorating the anniversary of tribal deaths.

"Our team is here to show solidarity with the people of Nandigram, who share the same fate as people of Kalinganagar. We are being harassed by the police unnecessarily. Incidents in Nandigram are not isolated cases but a part of national issue. The character of the state government is the same — be it Bengal or Orissa and we will organise an all-India people's movement," said Rajendra Sarengi, one of the leaders of the group.

The GRP at Kharagpur station traced the gang at around 2.30 am in a passenger compartment of Puri Express. The group is led by Ravinder Jarika of Bistapan Birodhi Janmanch and Rajendra Sarengi of Lokpakshya.The team included 19 women and 26 men, who were also carrying food for the affected villagers of Nandigram.

They were detained and taken to the Midnapore town police station. Teams from various security agencies from Kolkata reached the spot.The police also contacted their counterparts in Orissa to know about the antecedents of those detained and later, around 4.30 pm, they were released.

Pradip Singh Thakur, senior member of CPI-ML (ND), rushed to the spot from Kolkata and identified the detainees as their party members and demanded their release. "It was an illegal detention violating the basic rights of individuals. We strongly condemn the incident," said Choton Das, general secretary of Paschim Banga Bandi Mukti Committee, who help political prisoners in the state.

Kolkatta News Line