Sena bandh proves to be a damp squib

Rane, who was here yesterday, called on the party supporters, injured in the police lathi-charge and claimed that the police action was taken at the behest of Bhujbal.

The bandh supporters had adopted a strategy of surprise attacks by hiding in the lanes and by-lanes and emerging suddenly to pelt stones at oncoming public transport vehicles.

Against this backdrop, the bandh was expected to be a major success. But this did not happen. An adequate number of police pickets posted at different points and around the potentially troublesome localities to keep miscreants at bay ensured normal conditions in the city.

Life remained unaffected as trade and business establishments functioned as usual in the market areas like Mahal, Sadar, Sitabuldi, Dharampeth and Itwari, despite an odd attempt by Shiv Sainiks to strike terror and force the shopkeepers to down their shutters.

According to the police, 95 per cent of the shops, business and trade establishments remained open. Schools, colleges and and public establishments too functioned normally.

However, in what can be termed as the initial burst by overzealous supporters, 15 State Transport (ST) buses, including two reaching here from outstation depots, and a private luxury bus, were damaged in the five hours before noon. No one was reported injured in these incidents.

Around 7.10 am, a group of miscreants pelted stones at a private luxury bus at Mehendibagh. Three city buses were damaged near Gandhibagh bus stop while one each at Mehendibagh Road, Vaishali Nagar. Another three were damaged at Bhavsar Chowk along the Central Avenue and Lokanchi Shala near Siraspeth. Incidents of stone-pelting on buses were also reported from Indora Chowk, Dharampeth petrol pump, near Bishop Cotton School and Anand talkies and at Imambada areas.

At Sitabuldi, an effigy of Deputy Chief Minister and the Sena’s bete noire, Chhagan Bhujbal, was burnt by activists of the Hind Koyla Kaamgar Sena, an off-shoot of the Shiv Sena.

The Sitabuldi police nabbed one Sanjay Prabhakar Mohite while he was trying to escape on a scooter after pelting stones at a city bus. Five more bandh supporters, travelling in a Maruti car, were held after they indulged in stone-pelting.

Unidentified miscreants tried to put locks on the main gates of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation headquarters at Civil Lines, around 8.55 am but their attempt was foiled, police said.

Police rounded up at least 95 miscreants from different localities for causing trouble. Among them, 24 were nabbed in the Sakkardara police area, while 17 in the Lakadganj police area. Another 13 were arrested by the Sadar police while the Tehsil, Jaripatka and Koradi police rounded up the others. They were charged, among other things, for causing damage to public property, unlawful assembly and violation of prohibitory orders.

Given the circumstances, political observers were left wondering about the purpose served by the bandh call. Its failure was being attributed primarily to internal differences in the district Sena unit and the heavy police bandobast.