: Normal life in Assam was affected on Saturday during a 12-hour bandh from 5 am to 5 pm, called by Bajrang Dal, to press for the arrest of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal following media reports alleging AIUDF’s link with Jihadi groups of Bangladesh and recruitment of Muslim youth in Jihadi groups in Bangladesh.
Hundreds of bandh supporters were arrested in different parts of the state for trying to enforce the bandh by burning tyres on the roads and pelting stones at vehicles.
In the city, the bandh evoked mixed reactions. While private vehicles, auto-rickshaws and city buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation, rickshaws were seen plying during the bandh hours, private city buses were off the roads.
Government employees defied the bandh call and attended their offices but most of the traders kept their shutters down. The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its frontal organisations, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Hindu Jagaran Manch also supported the bandh call.
Maulana Ajmal called it a part of a political conspiracy by forces wary of the “growing popularity of the AIUDF” and demanded a high level probe to unearth the conspiracy.
