 Except for Exarchist Vlachs, for example the local revolutionary Pitu Guli and his family, who were Bulgarophiles, most members of the other ethnoreligious communities dismissed the IMRO as pro-Bulgarian.Initially surprised by the uprising, the Ottoman government took extraordinary military measures to suppress it.Pitu Guli's band (cheta) tried to defend the town from Ottoman troops coming from Bitola.