Chaos prevailed at the busy Howrah railway station complex in West Bengal on Thursday morning when two groups of licensed and unlicensed porters clashed with brickbats, injuring 46, prompting the Railway police to use lathis [batons] to disperse them.
The injured were licensed porters, an Eastern Railway spokesman said, adding that the clash ensued over their 'right to work' in the platforms.
Brickbats and soda water bottles were freely used during the clash, but there was no damage to railway property.
The spokesman said that the Shatabdi Ganadevta Express had already left the station when the two groups clashed. No waiting passengers on the platform were injured and the railway services remained unaffected, he said.
According to him, some unlicensed porters entered the station complex at 0630 IST and started brick-batting the licensed porters, forcing the latter to retaliate.
The superintendent of police, Howrah, superintendent of railway police and officers and personnel from the Rapid Action Force rushed to the spot and chased the warring groups with lathis.