Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

VHP bandh evokes mixed response

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Sept. 26. The country-wide bandh call given by the VHP in protest against the terrorist attack on Swaminarayan temple in Gandhinagar evoked mixed response in the State capital on Thursday.

While most of the shopping establishments in the Old City, except in areas dominated by minorities, were closed, the bandh was partial in other parts of the twin cities. A total of 242 persons, including four corporators, were taken into preventive custody when they tried to close shops forcibly.

Except deflating tyres of four APSRTC buses at Liberty crossroads and stone-pelting at another bus at Gudimalkapur, no untoward incident was reported. Normal life was not affected as RTC buses and private vehicles plied and petrol bunks were open. The bandh was near total in Shamsheergunj, Aliabad, Shalibanda, Lal Darwaza, Gowlipura and Patel market in the Old City and Begum Bazar and Siddiamber Bazar.

Activists of the VHP took out a rally in Koti where its State office was located. A group of ABVP activists stopped A.P. Express and East Coast Express trains at Secunderabad railway station for a couple of minutes. Later, they staged a rasta roko in front of the station. Protesters burnt effigies of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharaff, and terrorists.

The arrested corporators -- Shankar, Pasham Surender, Syam Raj and T. Gopal -- and their supporters were let off in the evening. A partial bandh was observed in the city suburbs falling under Ranga Reddy district.

The Kushaiguda police arrested 15 persons, including the Municipal Vice-Chairperson, D. Savithri, for forcibly closing the shops. A procession was taken out in Balanagar under the leadership of the Kukatpally Municipality councillor, Shankar Reddy. Two councillors -- Varalakshmi and Dasari Radha Devi -- were arrested and later released along with their followers.

The VHP, in a press release, thanked people for making the bandh a success. The parishad extended sympathies to the family members of the victims killed in the attack in Gandhinagar.

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