A petitioner from Hunan Province has been put under investigation on suspicion of intentional assault, after he stabbed two people who tried to prevent him from reaching Beijing while he was on a train trip.

Railway police have put Hu Xiuxiang, from Huayuan county, Hunan Province, under criminal detention for seriously assaulting others on the K268 train from Huaihua to Beijing on Saturday, said a director surnamed Huang from the Huaihua railway police in Hunan.

Wu Qundi and Shi Meihua, who were with Hu on the train, told The Beijing News that a group boarded at Zhangjiajie station, and tried to stop them from going to Beijing.

They said that when Hu argued with them, he was dragged to the ground. Hu struggled to stand, then the crowd began screaming and dispersed. Shi said she saw Hu waving scissors, a person lying on the ground, and that a police officer had been stabbed twice in the leg. The other injured man was an official from a Huayuan township.

According to a statement sent to xinhuanet.com, the Huayuan county government said that Hu, 39, had previously been sentenced to prison for one year with a two-year reprieve on January 13, 2013 for creating trouble. Local officials and police were trying to stop him, since he was still in the reprieve period, and lacked approval from the local public security bureau to leave the town.

Hu's brother Hu Xiuliang said that he had initially been arrested due to attempts to petition because of a land dispute.

People who intercept petitioners are always local government employees, police and government-hired personnel. They are hired because the number of petitioners is among the criteria used to assess local governments' performance.

Global Times