Violence mars A.P. bandh

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 29. Andhra Pradesh today observed a bandh, marred by stray incidents of violence, including stone-throwing, on a call given by the Congress (I) and nine Left parties in protest against police firing and lathicharge on demonstrators during the ``Chalo Assembly'' rally on Monday.

Supporters of these parties detained trains at some places, organised a rasta roko on the Chennai-Calcutta National highway near Vijayawada and targeted state transport corporation buses in a few places. Youth Congress (I) workers hoisted a black flag atop the office of the District Collector in Nellore.

With the vivid television pictures of yesterday's violence still fresh in people's minds, political parties did not have to make much effort to enforce the bandh. Normal life was paralysed with the schools, private offices and shops remaining closed and the state transport corporation withdrawing its local and long- distance services for the day.

The APCC (I) president, Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao, the CPI (M) State Secretary, Mr. B. V. Raghavulu, and the CPI national secretary, Mr. Dasari Nagabhushan Rao, described the bandh as a success. All of them demanded an enquiry by a sitting High Court Judge into the alleged police brutality on demonstrators yesterday. Police made large-scale preventive arrests on Monday night and this morning to avoid repetition of the violent incidents that rocked the twin cities. At least 300 political workers were estimated to have been rounded up in the capital alone.

Prohibitory orders were enforced with the police wielding lathis to disperse every small gathering and arresting those forcing shopkeepers to down their shutters before producing them in courts on specific charges.According to the Director General of Police, 40 buses were damaged in different parts of the State, including 34 in Hyderabad, while trains were stopped in 13 districts. At Bhimavaram in West Godavari district, about 50 Congress (I) and CPI (M) activists damaged the office of a finance company owned by a BJP leader.

Agitators demanding damaged a petrol station at Ongole and a car belonging to the Joint Collector in Khammam. About 55,000 policemen were deployed throughout the State to maintain law and order.

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