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Bandh near-total in Gujarat, passes off peacefully

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Sept. 26. Barring a few stray incidents, Gujarat observed a peaceful and near-complete bandh today, called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena to protest the terrorist attack on the Akshardham temple complex in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

Most of the shops and commercial establishments remained closed all over the State while the offices, both Government and private, functioned normally. Vehicular traffic on the road was comparatively thin but plied unhindered.

Some shops in the interior and outskirts of cities and towns opened in the morning but most of them closed down later in the day either voluntarily or because they were forced by the Sangh Parivar activists to do so. The Army staged flag marches in the sensitive areas of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Godhra, Dahod and some other riot-prone towns.

Two incidents of stabbing were reported from Surat where an unoccupied roadside cabin was also set on fire. A couple of shops were attacked and set ablaze in the Odhav locality of Ahmedabad. One person injured in the stabbing has been admitted to the hospital while the other victim was discharged after first aid.

No untoward incident was reported from any other part of Gujarat, which had witnessed unprecedented violence during the Gujarat Bandh on February 28 in the wake of the Godhra train carnage.

Many Muslim families in the sensitive areas of Ahmedabad and other major cities, who had shifted to relief camps on Wednesday due to fear, started returning after the bandh ended peacefully. The camp organisers said most of the families would return by tomorrow or the next couple of days. In some villages, members of the minority community had also migrated to the safety of the towns nearby out of panic.

The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, said the bandh had passed off peacefully, thanks to the "pseudo-secular forces.'' By not abusing a "particular community,'' as they had done after the Godhra carnage, these "forces" had "helped'' the Government maintain peace and law and order.

Pravin Togadia, international general secretary of the VHP, expressed similar sentiment. As the parties practising "pseudo-secularism" did not oppose the bandh call this time, the situation remained peaceful, he said adding that the bandh had received "unprecedented response'' all over the country.

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