Bhadrak, Aug. 14: The district headquarters town came to a standstill during a 12-hour strike called by Ganatantrik Suraksha Manch in protest against the recent violence at Barpada Engineering College.

Schools, colleges and most business establishments remained closed and vehicles remained off the road. Banks were closed and the shut down affected post offices and BSNL services. Government offices were open, but they had very low attendance. Railway service remained unaffected.

Overall, the strike was peaceful with no untoward incident being reported.

"The bandh was peaceful and incident-free. We deployed five platoons of police to maintain law and order," said sub-divisional police officer Sudhakar Jena.

However, he said that vehicular traffic on NH-5 was disrupted for about an hour due to picketing by the agitators.

On Friday, unknown goons threw crude bombs near the gate of Barpada Engineering College. Six persons were injured in the scuffle between the agitating college employees and the criminals. The staff alleged that the attack was made at the behest of the college governing body to scare them.

Among other things, the 360-member staff council has been demanding dissolution of the present governing body and payment of their salary, which has pending for the last five months.

"Nearly 30 organisations have extended their support towards our cause. The bandh was called by Ganatantrik Suraksha Manch. The people from various walks of life including lawyers expressed their solidarity," said Srikant Mahapatra, a college employee.

Sudhakar Jena, a senior advocate and president of Ganatantrik Suraksha Manch, said: "The district administration should immediately dissolve the present body and take over the institution."