On 6 April 1992, a state of emergency was proclaimed, with local Serbs already armed and surrounding the town. Local residents began to arm themselves or were armed by the Bosniak SDA party. The quick reaction of the local population prevented the town's capture by seizing two local JNA barracks finally on 26 April, where newly formed local TO (territory defence) forces captured most of the arms in the barracks, which was a turning point at the start of the war in the Visoko area. The TO then provided artillery support to the Bosniak soldiers in and around Sarajevo for which they were praised by Sefer Halilović on 24 June.