The bandh called by the banned CPI (Maoist) in the Agency area of the district on Thursday evoked a lukewarm response, and was peaceful and incident-free.
The Left Wing Extremists had called the to protest against the recent encounter at Theegalametta of Koyyuru mandal, in which six Maoists, including two divisional committee members (DCMs) and one area committee member (ACM) had been killed.
Most of the shops and establishments remained open in all the 11 mandals in the Agency. Both public and private transport vehicles plied without any hindrance.
“As per our reports, shops located in the interior areas such as Saparalla and Darakonda, and in the interior Maoist-affected mandals such as Pedabayalu, Munchingput, Koyyuru, Chintapalli and G.K. Veedhi too remained open. Posters or pamphlets printed by the Maoists have not been seen anywhere,” said Superintendent of Police B. Krishna Rao.
“This indicates that the banndh call has been rejected by the tribal people, who are now seeking development and do not want to follow the Maoists’ dictum,” Mr. Krishna Rao said.
It was business as usual in the Agency area, and APSRTC buses too plied on regular routes, said Vidyasagar Naidu, ASP of Chintapalli.
However, members of various tribal associations said a few people did not open shops due fearing retaliation in some interior parts of G.K. Veedhi, Pedabayalu and Koyyuru.
Ahead of the bandh, the district police had beefed up security in all the sensitive mandals. Check-posts were set up and combing operation was enhanced. Bomb disposal squads were deployed to sanitise all the sensitive routes. Security was scaled up at vital installations and for high-value targets. Drones were also used for surveillance.
