Traders across Dhanbad, known as the coal hub of Jharkhand, closed their units for an "indefinite period" from Wednesday to protest against increasing crime and extortion.

The traders were joined by medicine shopkeepers who closed their shops for a day and doctors under the aegis of the Indian Medical Association, Dhanbad chapter, abstaining from their work at the outpatient departments (OPDs) in private and government hospitals on Wednesday.

Dhanbad district chamber of commerce general secretary Ajay Narayan Lal informed on Wednesday night that the indefinite strike called by the traders has been called off after over an hour-long meeting with Dhanbad deputy commissioner Varun Ranjan and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sanjeev Kumar.

"We decided to call off the agitation after a meeting at around 8pm on the assurance from deputy commissioner and SSP of prompt redressal of all our grievances along with increase in security network and police patrolling and every month a joint meeting will be held with traders and senior administrative officials," said Lal.

Earlier, Lal said that they were forced to undertake this type of agitation as their repeated pleas for effective action to counter growing extortion activities fell on deaf ears of police.

“We have been appealing and pleading to the police for action against extortion groups in the Dhanbad district as the traders have been spending sleepless nights for the last few months. However, our repeated pleas did not evince any action from the police administration at the ground level,” said Lal.