Bandh evokes little response
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, July 3
The one-day strike call given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal and supported by the BJP failed to evoke a good response here. Even as business establishments owned by the majority community remained open throughout the day, shops and other business organisations of the minority community, opened in the afternoon after remaining shut for some hours in the morning.

Reports from Poonch district suggested the same trend with some business establishments run by a particular community functioned as usual and those owned by the other community remained shut only in the morning hours.

In the evening, some miscreants tried to force shopkeepers belonging to both the majority and minority community to shut their business establishments, but the latter refused to do so. However, no incidents of violence were reported from anywhere.

Ahead of the strike call given by the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, the district administration had taken adequate security measures to prevent any eventuality.

"I had to go for the Amarnath yatra, but the BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal, who indulged in protests, disrupted normal life in Jammu and have ruined my programme. They by politicising the land issue have done no good to Hindus. They are actually preventing pilgrims to go for the pilgrimage", said Sanjay Kumar, a local. "The BJP is doing it for electoral gains and is communalising the issue. These organisations have vitiated the peaceful atmosphere of the state."