Stranded students of Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School wait for the Jamait Ulema-e-Hind to lift its road blockade so they can go home. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Nikita had to wait for two hours after school for a ride home. It was small consolation for the Class XI student of Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School, whose classes gave over at 2.30pm, that 400 other students had to do the same. Some students had to stay back till 5.30pm.

“We are tired and hungry but we can’t go home. This is a complete nuisance,” was what Nikita had to say about the roadblocks put up by Jamait Ulema-e-Hind supporters across the city in the afternoon.

The organisation targeted 12 main roads and busy intersections. The supporters damaged public transport and did not allow vehicles to ply between 1pm and 5pm. The worst sufferers were the students and staff of schools in Park Circus.

“Major issues should be dealt with differently. Why bring children into them? They don’t understand what is going on… They are petrified,” said Malini Bhagat, the principal of Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School. “Today’s protest has only made the children afraid and insecure. This is not the way.”

Junior-section classes at the school ended at 12.30pm, while the senior section gave over a couple of hours later. Of the 3,000-odd students, about 1,300 were supposed to leave for home in school buses at 12.30pm. “Some of them might not reach home before 6.30pm. We distributed packets of biscuits among them. Parents have been calling up to know what the situation is. The students’ safety and security come first for us,” added Bhagat.

Students of Don Bosco School fared slightly better — most students were able to leave for home in school buses by 4.30pm. By then, some of the kindergarten students had had to wait for nearly four hours after classes ended. Many guardians could not reach the school before 5pm to pick up their wards.

“My classes got over at 2.35pm, but I had basketball coaching till 4pm. Now, I’m waiting for my parents to pick me up,” said Akash Das, a student of Class IV, around 5pm.

The Jamait was protesting a write-up in Patha Sanket magazine and the state government’s role in Nandigram.

The Ripon Street-AJC Bose Road intersection was blocked between 1.15pm and 5pm. An effigy was burnt and the windscreen of a bus was shattered. The supporters broke windscreens of two buses on Sundari Mohan Avenue

Other major intersections blocked were the Park Circus Connector-No. 4 Bridge, Entally Padmapukur, Moulali and the road in front of Topsia police station.