Hyderabad, March 11: A police official said that as there is a water body on one side and the Lower Tank Bund on the other, any use of force could have resulted in agitators falling into the lake.
The vulnerability of Tank Bund had been recognised during a review meeting held earlier and there were apprehensions that the statues would be damaged. This is why permission was not granted for the gathering on Tank Bund.
One failure was that despite the barricades at entry points, agitators from outside the city managed to surge in. The city police blame the district police for this but the barricades were not of much use within the city either as there was free movement between North and Central zones.
The police tried to manage the crowd without resorting to tear-gas but as the numbers grew, they were forced to do so. After the departure of the main political leaders of the JAC at about 5 pm, a group of about 1,000 persons belonging to the Indian Federation of Trade Unions remained on Tank Bund and surged towards the police, hurling stones at them. The police dispersed the group by lobbing tear-gas shells.
The home minister, Ms P. Sabita Indra Reddy condemned the attack on MPs, media men and the violence. The DIG Mr Srinivasa Reddy, the Central Zone DCP, Mr Akun Sabarwal, JCP Mr M.M. Bhagwat, and task force DCP V. B. Kamalsan Reddy were present at the scene.
–Agencies