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Bandh peaceful in southern states, Goa

Police said no untoward incident was reported from any part of Andhra Pradesh, though VHP activists burned an effigy of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at Doodbowli area of Hyderabad.

Six buses of the Road Transport Corporation were deflated at Himayatnagar and Kushaiguda area and the activists tried to deflate tyres of another bus at Liberty, the police said.

A report from Nellore said Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists held up traffic near Ambedkar statue for some time.

While government offices, banks and schools remained open, some private educational institutions declared holiday and postponed the quarterly examinations.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had disapproved of the bandh saying it would only create more tension.

In Bangalore, capital of Karnataka, traffic was thin. Schools and colleges declared holiday, whereas offices reported low attendance. Exams were also postponed.

Business establishments in strongholds of the VHP downed shutters as the day advanced, while shops and hotels in sensitive areas remained closed throughout the day.

The bandh evoked mixed response in other parts of the state.

Barring stray incidents and preventive arrests, the bandh was peaceful, with trains, intercity and interstate buses, domestic flights, and other essential services functioning normally, Bangalore Police Commissioner H T Sangliana told rediff.com

Goa was largely peaceful, except minor incidents of stone throwing around Panaji. Shopkeepers in main cities and towns downed shutters. But many shops and petrol pumps opened late in the evening.

Offices registered drop in attendance. Initially, most of the public transport buses were off the roads, but later many of them started plying. Air and rail transport was also functioning smoothly.

A holiday was declared in schools and colleges. Members of the Shiv Sena burnt the flag of Pakistan in the city of Mapusa.

In Kerala, markets, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed. Buses and taxis were off the road, though two-wheelers plied in urban areas.

In all, 233 persons were taken into preventive custody since Wednesday night. Security was tightened in and around major temples and other places of worship.

In Karunagapallay in Kollam, miscreants stoned a van belonging to Amritanandandamayi mutt.

Banks and government offices functioned with thin attendance.

However, the hartal did not have much impact in Kochi Refineries Limited, where 90 per cent of the workforce turned up, while The Cochin Port reported 45 per cent attendance.

All courts and offices in the Kerala high court functioned normally.

In most parts of Tami Nadu the call for bandh had no effect.

However, there was some tension in Tiruppur town of Coimbatore district, as miscreants stoned a few shops belonging to the minority community. A couple of two-wheelers were also set ablaze. Senior officials immediately rushed to the spot and restored normalcy.

In Pondicherry, local Bharatiya Janata Party president Lakshminarayanan and some party cadres were arrested for forcefully seeking closure of shops.

Elsewhere in the Union Territory, the bandh had little or no response.

With inputs from N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai, Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji, Fakir Chand in Bangalore and PTI

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