KOLKATA: Violent protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act rocked parts of West Bengal on Saturday, with four districts — Murshidabad, Howrah , Malda and North 24 Parganas — emerging as flashpoints where agitators torched at least 17 buses, five empty trains, fire engines, and police vehicles, vandalised half a dozen rail stations, hurled stones at passing vehicles and fought a pitched battle with police.There were reports of protesters using children as human shields in Murshidabad’s Jangipur.Across the state, thousands of passengers remained stuck in buses, trains and at rail stations for hours as national and state highways remained blocked. At least 28 long-distance trains were cancelled.In Kolkata, chief minister Mamata Banerjee appealed for peace and urged people not to adopt undemocratic means of protest. “Do not take law in your hands… Do not put up road blockades and rail blockades and create trouble for the common people on the roads… Do not cause damage to government property. Strict action would be taken against those found guilty of creating disturbance,” a statement released by her office.Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is in conflict with Mamata and the TMC government, tweeted, “Distressed and pained at events unfolding in the State. Chief minister as per oath has to ‘bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India’, and I as Governor will ‘to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law’.”The arterial Kona Expressway was the epicentre of the violence on Saturday morning where protesters dragged out passengers from at least 17 city-bound buses before setting the vehicles on fire at a spot less than 10km from state secretariat Nabanna. The mob even prevented fire engines from reaching the spot to douse the burning vehicles.Traffic was held up on the arterial highway for close to five hours as protesters hurled stones at cops trying to lift the blockade. Many passengers claimed their bags were looted by the vandals after they were forced out of buses.“I was travelling to Kolkata with my 73-year-old mother for a medical check-up. We were forced to get off without our luggage and beaten up. The mob then set the bus on fire, burning our bags containing the entire set of my mother’s medical records,” said Soumen Pathak of Durgapur.Elsewhere in Howrah, a 2km stretch connecting Sheikhpara with Moukhali in Sankrail resembled a war zone with protesters clashing with cops. The mob also attacked Sankrail station, setting ablaze the ticket counter and signal room. They blocked NH-6 at Salap and roads at Bauria, Nolpur and Bagnan, making commuting impossible across Howrah.The protesters also blocked NH-34 at several points from north to south Bengal, right from Amdanga in North 24 Parganas to Behrampore and Malda.In Murshidabad, Lalgola station was partially gutted and five empty trains were set ablaze at Krishnapur station. Stone-pelting by mobs left RPF head constable Santosh Kumar Das seriously injured at Jangipur railway station while the ticket counter at Nimtita station was ransacked.Similar scenes were witnessed at Malda, where the signal room and ticket counter of Harishchandrapur station were ransacked by a mob that first attacked the Katihar-Malda passenger train.Beldanga station in Murshidabad, which was torched by a mob on Friday, continued to remain non-operational.Train services bore the brunt of Saturday’s violence with at least 28 trains cancelled throughout the day within the jurisdictions of Eastern, South Eastern and Northeast Frontier Railways.“Apart from Sankrail station, mobs also stormed the Chengail and Fuleswar stations, breaking the locks of the panel rooms and driving out railway staff. Nalpur station was also ransacked. At Bauria, the electric locomotive of a goods train bound for Malda Town was damaged,” an SER official said. Suburban train services, too, were badly hit.Railway officials said it may take days for the situation to normalise as the damaged equipment would have to be repaired or replaced. Proper inspection of tracks would need to be carried out to establish whether they are fit for train movement, they said.