Title - Integrationists try to stop trains

Protestors favouring Samaikyandhra tried to stop trains as part of their “rail roko” agitation in coastal and Rayalaseema districts on Sunday.

The Guntur-Visakhapatnam Simhadri express was stopped in Guntur and the Janmabhoomi express at Tenali elsewhere in the same district, according to information reaching here.

They squatted on the tracks and raised slogans till the passengers requested them to relent. The protestors tried to storm the Visakhapatnam railway station but they were rounded up by police at the entrance.

The police posted huge security at the stations and tracks to foil the call given by the joint action committee against bifurcation of the State for holding up trains. At least seven armed policemen were made to travel by each train since Saturday night. The railway protection force and government railway police guarded the stations while the local police kept a vigil outside.

The divisional railway manager at Secunderabad Sushant Kumar Mishra told The Hindu that there was no stoppage of trains in the division.

The Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) V.S.K. Kaumudi said the train traffic was not affected.