BJP-sponsored bandh evokes mixed response in TN

The state-wide bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party to protest the murder of a senior party functionary evoked mixed response across Tamil Nadu with normal life largely remaining unaffected, barring some stray incidents of stone pelting.

BJP activists staged protests in various parts of the state, demanding arrest of culprits responsible for the death of their general secretary V Ramesh, 52, who was hacked to death in Salem by a four-member gang on July 19.

The police who had scaled up security cover during the bandh took into custody more than 4,000 agitators. In Coimbatore, tension prevailed in NGGO colony near suburban Thudiyalur when a petrol bomb hurled by some miscreants targetting a government-run bus fell near a place of worship.

Shops and commercial establishments had downed shutters in many places in Tirupur, Erode, Coimbatore, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari and Puducherry. Police protection was given to long distance services in Kanyakumari, while most of the private schools remained closed in Salem where normal life remained unaffected.

In neighbouring Puducherry, private buses, autos and tempos went off the roads during the dawn to dusk bandh called by the local BJP unit. Most of the private schools declared holiday for Monday, while in government schools the attendance was normal.

At least five buses parked on the roadsides in Puducherry were stoned on different routes, police said, adding cases were registered to nab the accused.

The police suspect the role of three persons in the murder, including two of whom are accused in a case pertaining to planting of a pipe bomb in veteran BJP leader L K Advani's yatra route in Madurai in 2011.

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had announced constitution of a Special Investigation Division to probe Ramesh's killing. Barring sporadic incidents of stone-pelting on government buses in Chennai, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari no major untoward incident from any part of the state was reported, police said.