Hyderabad, February 21: The heavy security blanket thrown across the city, particularly on the stretch from Osmania University to the AP State Legislative Assembly left no scope for the OU Joint Action Committee members to reach the Assembly as part of their Assembly `Muttadi’ (siege) programme, but students and security forces were engaged in pitched battles by evening after a pro-Telangana activist immolated himself on the Osmania University campus today.
Scores of agitators rained stones while the forces lobbed teargas shells and used smoke bombs at Tarnaka.
The situation remained tense till late in the night. Late in the night, DGP RR Girish Kumar and City Police Commissioner AK Khan visited the scene of the disturbances. Kumar said the seven-member peace committee set up by the Government a couple of days ago would tour the campus tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister K Rosaiah expressed shock over the turn of events and appealed to people not to sacrifice their lives.
2 MORE END LIVES: Elsewhere in Telangana, two students ended their lives despairing of a State of Telangana materialising. At Papaiahpet in Chennaraopet mandal in Warangal district, a first-year degree student, MD Savera (17), set herself ablaze depressed over the suicide attempt by Yadaiah on the Osmania University campus, while in Alair in Nalgonda, BTech final-year student, Y Srinivas (23), hanged himself leaving behind a note voicing his anguish over the hurdles to Telangana.
The sequence of events began unfolding around 10 in the morning when about 1,500 students gathered and began marching towards the Assembly.
Soon, they squatted on the roads and it was only an hour later that the police managed to disperse them. Since morning, the main thoroughfares in the city remained cut off to the public as all roads leading to the Assembly were sealed.
The police had heavily barricaded the 3-kilometre area around the Assembly with barbed wire and heavilyarmed policemen took up positions in every nook and corner. At Nizam College, about 150 students were taken into custody when they made a vain bid to march towards the Assembly.
Though the situation remained peaceful till afternoon and the Assembly proceedings passed off without a hitch, emotions ran high after a youth, Siripuram Yadaiah, doused himself with petrol and lit himself up. Engulfed in flames he dashed towards the traffic signals on Sivam Road — a sight that left all dumb with shock and fear. Finally, one policemen mustered some resolve, tackled Yadaiah to the ground and poured water on him. The youth was rushed to a corporate hospital in Kanchanbagh where he is battling for life with 90 per cent burns.
As news of the immolation spread, tension began building up on the campus. A private bus was burnt completely, three RTC buses were damaged at Jamia Osmania, as were four private vehicles. A group of students pelted stones at OU Vice-Chancellor T Tirupati Rao’s car and smashed the windscreens but it is learnt that he was not in it.
Around 4:00 p.m., policemen came under heavy stoning from all sides in Tarnaka. Initially, they used batons to disperse the agitators but soon fired smoke bombs and lobbed tear gas shells to quell the youths.
In between, some lawyers and professors managed to pacify the students.
But soon, the stoning resumed.
The agitators went about damaging hoardings and streetlights while raising slogans against the police.
A Class 10 pass-out, Yadaiah, who lives in Maheshwaram, left a suicide note in his bag in which he stated that he had participated in all the agitations for Telangana and was now sacrificing his life for it. In all, about 350 students were taken into custody.
–Agencies