She was one of the passengers, who returned by special train from New Jalpaiguri, and narrated the tales of trauma.

This train is a Central government initiative to bring back the stranded tourists after Janamukti Gorkha Morcha declared the indefinite strike in the Hills. There were children, parents, honeymooners, foreigners- all exhausted with the bandh. While some had to cut short their holiday, others could not even reach the hill station and had to return all the way.

“I had plans of spending my holiday in Darjeeling but was not even allowed to enter and had to put up in a hotel in Siliguri,” Deepti Acharya said. Families shared their experience of food shortage, children falling sick, cramping up in waiting rooms, asking for help from locals and hoteliers.

Take Mehesh Sahu’s family. They came from Ranchi for a holiday, with no inkling that their children would go without food for hours. Or consider, Nitra Lakhe’s family, as they were left stranded by the driver on the streets of Siliguri with their luggage. “We would never visit Darjeeling,” Lakhe said.

A nine-member family from Chattisgarh was cramped up in one room for a night after being shown no vacancies in almost all the hotels of Siliguri.

“Gorkha people were extremely rude to us. There were no arrangement for us till we heard about this special train,” said Neeraj Martin.

The Aobet couple from Mauritius never imagined that their much-awaited honeymoon would end in such a harrowing experience.

In another incident, a tourist vehicle was attacked at Odlabari by a mob. The tourists tried to escape in a nearby jungle, but they were caught, beaten up and the vehicle was set on fire.