Educational institutions here were forced to stay shut Thursday in view of a bandh call given by student parties to protest the gruesome murder of medical student Bhargavi and her mother earlier this week.
However, there was no dislocation of the transport system nor work in government offices. Though students groups did try to enforce the bandh in government offices too, went on as normal. Autos and RTC buses plied on the roads as usual.
The bandh was not too vigorous as hundreds of marriages were to take place on Thursday. Police were deployed at city intersections to nip any trouble.
Police arrested some students of the All India Students Federation (AISF) and Telugu Nadu Students Federation (TNSF) when they tried to disrupt traffic at some centrers in the city.
While activists belonging to student parties tried to whip up the decibels by demanding a street trial of the murderes and a summary death sentence, there was much less enthusiasm for the bandh from citizens, although they too had worked up some anger on the day news of the muders broke in the media.
However, there was some tension in the Harnathapuram area where the mother and daughter lived.