 The president of the Pristina League of Communists, Aslan Fazlia (an Albanian) said that the protests were nationalistic and counterrevolutionary and announced tough police action against the demonstrators.This action failed to quell the protests that instead grew in response with protests by Albanians sweeping across Kosovo, the President of the League of Communists of Kosovo Mahmut Bakalli decided in response to ask the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to bring tanks onto the streets.Police reinforcements from Central Serbia were stopped by a roadblock and then Albanian demonstrators took hostages from thirty-four houses of Serbs and Montenegrins, demanding that these police forces leave Kosovo in exchange for the release of the hostages.