From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: A 12-hour dawn-to-dusk bandh, called by the Bajrang Dal in protest against the current spell of violence on Monday shut down the entire Assam valley, including Guwahati city.
Even as sporadic incidents of violence were reported from different parts of the State. The bandh paralysed normal life in Assam.
The shutdown was supported by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The bandh supporters damaged a few vehicles including a city bus in Guwahati bringing the public transport to a grinding halt in the entire state while private vehicles were seen plying on the road.
Bandh supporters burnt tyres and pelted stones at vehicles in different parts of the state following which the police took nearly 500 of them into preventive custody in Guwahati, Golokgunj and Agomoni in Dhubri, official sources said.
Schools, colleges and educational institutions, commercial and business establishments, financial institutions remained closed with attendance in government offices thin, the sources said.
At many places, the government offices too recorded thin attendances. The shutdown, however, failed to impact movement of trains and flights in the state, official sources said.
A Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman said that all the trains were running as per schedule.
Vehicles remained off the roads with a few state transport buses running with police escorts.
Bandh supporters were also taken into preventive custody near the North East Frontier Railway at Maligaon here when they stopped railway employees from reporting for duty, the sources said.
Bandh supporters also blocked the National Highway-31 for sometime, though police cleared the road and detained the picketers.
The Bajrang Dal has called for the bandh demanding protection of indigenous people in view of the spell of communal clashes dogging lives in Bodoland Territorial council areas in the State.
The bandh has been called demanding updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and protection of NE-origin people, residing in other parts of the country.
The Bajrang Dal has also demanded the arrest of Dhubri MP and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, accusing him of instigating the riots.
The security all over the State was gear up because of the bandh.
Activists of All Bodoland Minority Students Union (ABMSU) and AMSU tried to block train services at Bijni in Kokrajhar district on Monday morning in protest against attacks on people from ‘minority’ community.
Rail and air services, however, remained unaffected. The bandh was supported by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and RSS.
There was no fresh incident of violence in lower Assam districts since Sunday evening where seven people have died and two others injured since Friday taking the toll in the more than month-long violence to 87.
Meanwhile, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has deputed a five-member team of ministers to violence-hit BTC areas to supervise efforts to bring normalcy to the area.
Gogoi has taken the decision in view of occurrence of some fresh killings in the area during the last few days. The team of ministers include Prithvi Majhi, Pradyut Bardoloi, Himanta Bishwa Sarma, Rockybul Hussain and Chandan Brahma.
Meanwhile, the United Movement for Peoples’ Rights — a conglomeration of 12 organisation of non-Bodo communities and organisations of religious minority people — has also called for a 12-hour Assam bandh on Tuesday to protest against the failure of the state government to check alleged atrocities on non-Bodos and other minority communities in Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts (BTAD).
Night curfew continued in the districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri with the army on patrol. (With iputs from Agencies)