Bangalore : The city is on alert on Thursday in the wake of a bandh called by Kannada outfits to protest against the rising incidents of sexual crimes against women and children.

The police have tightened security across the city and deployed “maximum” force to prevent any sort of violence during the protests.

The shutdown follows public outrage over the alleged recent gang-rape of a six-year-old girl at Vibgyor High school. The incident drew all-round condemnation and criticism pouring in for the government and police.

‘Kannada Okoota’ – an umbrella body of several Kannada organisations led by Vatal Nagaraj – has given the dawn-to-dusk bandh call and also demanded “severest” punishment to the perpetrators of sexual offences.

“Associations of government employees, lawyers, hotels, taxis and autos and women’s groups are supporting us to ensure a 12-hour shutdown tomorrow (Thursday) from 6 am to protest the spate of crimes against women, especially minors in the city,” Nagaraj told reporters yesterday.

The organisations, however, exempted essential services, including milk supply, ambulances, trains and inter-state buses from the shutdown. ”We have appealed to the state-run BMTC not to operate bus services across the city and urged schools, colleges, private companies including IT firms, shops, theatres and markets to declare a holiday and join us in the protest,” Nagaraj said.

A protest rally will be taken out from Town Hall to the state secretariat in the city centre and a memorandum will be submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to check crimes against women and take stringent action against the perpetrators.

“We have taken all the necessary preparatory measures in terms of mobilising maximum amount of force — both civil as well as armed — from the city police, also the home guards. Nearly 1000 home guards will be on duty tomorrow (Thursday),” city Police Commissioner MN Reddi told reporters yesterday.

“Apart from this, we are also getting two companies of central reserve forces; we have alerted our intelligence units to collect information on any potential problems that can be created. We expect that we will be able to handle the bandh tomorrow (Thursday), fairly well,” he added.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Alok Kumar said they would take strict action against those who indulge in untoward incidents. “We may also book miscreants who indulge in unlawful activities under Goonda Act. All our personnels will be involved in bandobast from today (Wednesday) evening itself.”

Some schools have declared a holiday today.

A rash of sexual offences, including the rape of a 22-year old woman in a car while she was with her friend and that of a 15-year-old nun at a seminar in Bangalore had led to public anger and rising concerns over safety of women in the country’s IT hub.

Facing public pressure, police issued tough guidelines to schools for safety of children and government has tightened the Goondas Act to bring sexual offenders under its ambit.