Left and Congress activists demanding jobs clashed with the police in central Kolkata's Esplanade area Thursday as they tried to break barricades on their way to state secretariat Nabanna, resulting in injuries to several participants and also the police.

Condemning the brutal attacks on students and young men and women by the "police force of the Trinamool Congress government", Left Front Chairman Biman Bose announced a 12-hour West Bengal bandh by the Left and associate parties from 6 am on Friday in protest.

"The way police unleashed atrocities on the participants in the march to Nabanna, it created a situation somewhat akin to the historic Jallianwala Bagh incident," Bose said in a statement.

The Left Front chairman claimed that more than 150 students and young men and women were injured in the police action while participating in the 'Nabanna abhiyan' programme of the student and youth wings of the Left and Congress demanding jobs and better education facilities.

Bose said that the bandh call has been discussed with the Left Front constituents and the Congress party, with which it has formed an electoral alliance for the coming assembly elections in West Bengal.