RPF jawans at the Malda railway station.

A jawan of the Railway Protection Force or RPF was killed when angry hawkers thrashed him and hurled stones at the force at the Malda railway station this afternoon.

They were protesting against their ouster from the station platform.

The trouble started around noon, when an RPF team started removing hawkers from the platform. One hawker was injured and the others turned violent.

They picked up stones from the rail tracks and started hurling them at the RPF. One jawan was caught and thrashed badly. He died in hospital later.

But as he was being thrashed, an RPF team fired 13 rounds to disperse the mob. The police rushed to the area to bring the situation under control. The area is still tense.