Hyderabad, December 24: Tension gripped the entire Telangana belt, including Hyderabad, within minutes of the Centre’s announcement on the separate State issue. Students of the Osmania University went on the rampage at Tarnaka and other places here prompting the police to whip out their lathis. Similarly, their counterparts at the Kakatiya University in Warangal also took to the streets. Vehicular traffic was held up on the Hyderabad-Vijayawda National Highway in Nalgonda district.
Given the volatile situation and the 48-hour bandh call by the TRS, additional forces were deployed at several places to meet any eventuality. Prohibitory Orders were clamped down in Hyderabad and Mahaboobnagar.
In the State capital, OU students went berserk setting afire the Outer Ring Road Project Director’s office in the Huda complex at Tarnaka and torching two buses at Lalaguda. They also damaged window panes of scores of RTC buses at the Tarnaka crossroads. ‘‘I was in my office on the first floor when I heard commotion and rushed out to find that the ORR PD office was on fire.
I saw 4-5 youngsters setting it on fire,’’ Lakshminarayana, a private employee at a nearby office told Express.
Police resorted to lathicharge and took into custody some members of the OU students’ joint action committee.
At Chaitanyapuri, protestors torched a bus and two lorries near a petrol pump. They also reportedly attacked the Kalaniketan shopping mall and pelted stones on a few corporate colleges. Several buses were also damaged at Kukatpally, Amberpet and Yellareddyguda while a police van came under attack at Jeedimetla. The protesting students also set fire to a booking counter at the railway station near the OU campus.
Tension also prevailed in Manikeshwar Nagar near the OU campus after the students were caned by the police. ATM centres of two nationalised banks were also attacked at Ashok Nagar.
Apart from local police, Central paramilitary forces, stationed in the city ever since the Telangana movement picked up, were rushed to the troubled areas.
The protests at OU began even before Union Home Minister P Chidambaram made the statement.
Anticipating trouble, the police intensified security in and around the OU campus from evening itself. But it seems, that wasn’t enough. Telangana Youth Force, a newlyfloated outfit by a section of the OU students, gave a bandh call on Thursday.
’’The State and Central governments will be responsible for whatever happens on Thursday,‘‘ TYF leader M Ajay warned.
Kakatiya University students in Warangal also staged protests and tried to damage the party offices of the Congress and the TDP and also burnt the TDP’s flag. At Torrur in the district, TDP activists led by its legislator E Dayakar Rao bur nt Home Minister P Chidambaram in effigy. A lecturer, Upender, collapased and died of a heart attack during a protest at Subedari in the district.
In Medak district, protestors set fire to the tehsildar office at Dubbaka.
—Agencies