A railway blockade that led to cancellation of trains and left thousands of passengers stranded on Monday was organised by the Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal.

The tribal organisation active in Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha has threatened to continue the agitation indefinitely over a charter of demands.

“Our main demands are recognition of Santhali language at university level and appointment of Santhali language teachers in schools and colleges. We had taken up our demands with the state government many times. We were assured that our demands would be met but nothing has been done so far. So, we will continue our blockade,” said Rabin Tudu, a member of the organisation.

From 6 am onwards, members of the outfit — many armed with traditional weapons like bows and arrows and axes — started blocking NH6 and railway tracks.

As chief minister Mamata Banerjee was overseas, none in the government took any initiative to end the agitation and there was no comment from Nabanna.

But sources said senior administrative officials were trying to reach out to the leaders of the tribal outfit.

But as a resolution eluded, passengers, stranded for hours, were clueless about what to do.

South Bengal districts like West Midnapore, East Midnapore, and Jhargram were severely hit by the blockade. In Purulia, Bankura and Birbhum, the blockade was withdrawn after some time.

Many trains of South Eastern Railway were cancelled and rescheduled.

Shibnath Banerjee of Asoknagar in North 24 Parganas was waiting anxiously at Howrah station with his family when The Telegraph met him. “Six of us were to board Amaravathi Express as we were on a 10-day vacation to Goa. All our bookings are made. Our train is cancelled for tonight. We want to know whether the railways will put us on another train to Mumbai.”

Several passengers have complained that lack of any announcement from the railway authorities added to the confusion.

Ashok Ghosal, who was to board Ahmedabad Express on a business trip, was standing near the inquiry counter to know whether he could leave for Gujarat on Tuesday.

Miscreants with their faces covered set fire to a motorcycle outside Belda railway station in West Midnapore, while another group ransacked the stationmaster’s office around 9pm.

It was not clear whether the incident at Belda had anything to do with the agitation.

Earlier in the day, the agitation affected passengers of local trains, mostly office-goers and students.

Anita Das, a resident of Shyamchak village in Kharagpur and a first-year BA student at Banamali College in Panskura, said: “After my classes, I could not take a train back home because of the blockade. I tried to take a bus. But bus services were also suspended because of the

blockade.”

The tribal organisation put up the biggest blockade on NH6 at Machogram More in East Midnapore where a large police force was present.

“We requested the agitators to disperse but they did not listen. Force wasn’t used in order to avoid untoward incidents,” a senior police officer of East Midnapore said.

The blockade along NH6 left thousands of trucks and other vehicles stranded for hours.

Additional reporting by Sanjay Mandal and Snehal Sengupta