ITANAGAR, June 25 � Normal life was today affected in Itanagar Capital Complex following a 12-hour capital bandh call given by All Arunachal Pradesh Students� Union (AAPSU) in protest against the State Government�s alleged failure to meet its seven-point charter of demands.
The dawn to dusk bandh was total, as markets and other business establishments voluntarily kept their shutters down, and was marred by stray incidents of violence.
Barring sporadic incidents of stone-pelting in the morning hours, there was no report of any major untoward incident from any corner of the capital region till noon.
However, the situation turned volatile around 1.30 pm when AAPSU president Kamta Lapung and his supporters were lathicharged by police in Itanagar Police Station premises in which Lapung sustained grievous injuries.
Agitated at the police action, around a hundred student activists staged a protest march towards the police station but they were stopped at the tri-junction and disallowed to proceed further.
The AAPSU, meanwhile, extended its bandh call by another 24 hours in protest against the alleged police high-handedness and demanded immediate termination of the Itanagar SDPO Bomge Kamduk from service, holding him �totally responsible� for using batons against the aapsu activists.
�Until and unless the government terminates the SDPO, Itanagar, we will not sit idle till we get justice,� announced Aapsu president. As a pre-emptive measure, police had earlier detained more than a dozen aapsu activists.
All educational institutions, Central Government offices, banks, post offices and other financial institutions remained closed during the bandh period.
Home Minister Tanga Byaling, while talking to reporters, said that one day�s salary will be cut from those employees who failed to make it to their offices.
The bandh was called in protest against the State Government�s non-responsive attitude towards fulfilling AAPSU charter of demands including enhancement of students� stipends and their immediate release.
The students� body has also been insisting the government to come up with a �white paper� on the State�s poor financial health, abolish the �meaningless� appointment of chairman, vice chairman and OSDs in various government departments at the cost of State exchequer, immediate release of State Government employees� monthly salaries and pending bills of genuine contractors, and improve the ramshackle condition of the capital roads, among others.
