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Updated: Feb 16, 2019 13:58 IST

Rail traffic between Virar, Vasai and Nalasopara were affected on Saturday morning, as commuters staged a rail roko to protest the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 jawans of the CRPF were martyred in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday afternoon. Stone pelting at trains was also reported at Nalla Sopara.

Besides the rail roko, shops and commercial establishments in Virar also downed their shutters on Saturday morning, and even a few Vasai civic buses were forced to halt at Virar, as part of the protests.

Pratik Patil a resident of Palghar who works in a cosmetics manufacturing firm in Andheri, said, “I have been stuck at Virar for the past 2 hours, as the Surat-Mumbai Flying Ranee superfast express is not proceeding towards Mumbai due to the protests, so is the 15-coach Virar-Andheri local which is yet to leave Virar.”

Similarly, two Churchgate-Dahanu morning trains have not reached Virar, while the Virar-Dahanu shuttle trains will operate normally as the Virar-Dahanu track is clear, said Patil.

A Western Railway tweet by the DRM said that protestors have blocked the tracks at Nalla Sopara due to which train movement has been affected at Nalla Sopara and beyond. GRP and RPF are making efforts to convince the people and evacuate the tracks and normalise the train movemnt, said the tweet.

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Amish Wadkar a textile businessman from Boisar, said, “The 7.45 am Dahanu Churchgate local was stopped near Nalla Sopara and locals on the tracks forced us to get down from the train and so we closed all doors and windows. The miscreants pelted stones at the train and also banged the doors and windows with lathis, and after a while, some of them managed to enter the coaches so we got down from the local and walked back.”

Some protestors also forced some Vasai civic buses to stop as they threatened to deflate the tyres if the buses proceeded any further. They also forced the to get off the bus, said Prathamesh Tawde, a resident of Virar.

Also read | Pulwama suicide bomber, 22, lived 10km from spot