Normal life was disrupted Monday in Odisha's Maoist-affected Malkangiri district due to a strike called by the opposition Congress party against police failure to locate five missing people, a party leader said.
Vehicles were off the roads, while government and private offices, business establishments, post offices and banks remained closed across the region.
Congress leader Pradeep Kumar Majhi, who represents the area in the Lok Sabha, said the 12-hour strike was a total success.
He said the shutdown call was given to protest police failure in locating five people who went missing in the district over the past few years.
Majhi said the Congress had called the shutdown to protest the police detention of hundreds of vehicles coming to a Congress party meeting in the region Sunday, he said.
He said four of the five people who went missing in police custody were arrested on charges of being Maoist supporters.
"Police did not produce them in court nor did they hand over their bodies to the families in case they are dead," Majhi told IANS.
