Hyderabad, December 07: The movement for a separate state of Telangana took a serious turn Monday as police and paramilitary forces used force to quell student protests at Osmania University and also beat up journalists.
Rapid Action Force (RAF) and police personnel caned students on the campus to foil their plans to take out a rally to the state assembly as a mark of solidarity with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, whose fast-unto-death seeking a separate state entered the ninth day.
Armed security personnel who entered the campus in the morning chased students to a neighbouring locality and attacked them. A police officer said the students were pelting stones.
Student leaders who were on hunger strike also received the blows, as did some journalists covering the protests.
About 15 students and five journalists were injured in the police action, triggering angry reaction from Telangana sympathisers.
Tension prevailed on the campus as hundreds of students of other colleges and lawyers supporting the Telangana movement rushed to the campus after they came to know of the police action.
The incident, which took place on the second day of the two-day Telangana shutdown called by TRS, evoked all-round condemnation.
–IANS