199 taken into custody during Nagpur bandh

Nagpur, Nov 10 (UNI) Police today arrested 199 people and resorted to a lathicharge and burst tear gas shells at several places here to quell sporadic violence during the one-day 'bandh' called in protest against the Khairlanji massacre.

Among the arrested include corporator Raju Lokhande while former Maharashtra Minister of State Sulekha Kumbhare was detained for a while.

The call of 'bandh', which evoked a near-total response in the city, was given by the Khairlanji Murders Protest Committee to condemn the massacre of four members of a Dalit family by villagers in Khairlanji in Bhandara district of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra recently.

Additional Commissioner of Police Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay said nearly 95 per cent of shops and commercial establishments in the city remained closed in response to the 'bandh' call.

All educational institutions declared a holiday and nearly 75 per cent of autorickshaws did not ply on the streets, he said.

There were several incidents of stone-pelting and arson, especially in South Nagpur, while most other parts of the city remained peaceful, he said.

The stone-pelting damaged four buses and four police vehicles, he said, adding South Nagpur was affected the most, with all the 354 teargas shells burst by the police in the area.

Two platoons of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) had been deployed in South Nagpur to maintain law and order, Mr Upadhyay said.

Mr Upadhyay said the police had denied permission to the ''long march'' proposed to be taken out from Nagpur to Khairlanji from November 12, and would initiate action against anybody who tried to stage it.

In reply to a question, Mr Upadhyay said localities like Indora in North Nagpur, which had witnessed widespread violence earlier this week, remained largely peaceful today. Nagpur was still tense as the atmosphere was surcharged, but the situation was under control, he said.

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