Violent protests continue in Bengal amid warning, appeal; over

Road and rail blockades continued in West Bengal on Monday as violent protests over the citizenship law refused to die down, amid warning by state authorities and appeal from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, even as over 300 people were arrested.

The TMC supremo, who led a mega rally from Red Road to Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the ancestral house of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in north Kolkata, urged the agitators to not indulge in vandalism and arson, and said it will only undermine the very motive of the protest.

She also blamed some powers from outside West Bengal "acting as friends" of the Muslim community for vandalism and arson, in an apparent reference to Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM.

"If you indulge in violence, you cause a lot of inconvenience to the common people. Those who support your cause gets angry, and you would lose their support," Banerjee said.

Notwithstanding the appeal, incidents of violence were reported from several districts across the state with ...