Hyderabad, January 08: The Osmania University campus continued to be on the boil for the second day running on Friday as students and paramilitary forces fought pitched battles amid deafening sounds of stun grenades, teargas shells and rubber bullets.
About 10 students and a few policemen were injured in the clashes.
Around 1 1 a.m., after a meeting at the Arts college, nearly 300 students belonging to the ABVP marched towards the NCC gate only to be greeted by the police. Students from the nearby engineering department too joined them and began raising slogans.
Soon, heavy stone-pelting followed which forced the security forces to lob teargas shells and stun grenades. It continued for over an hour. Two students and a couple of policemen were hurt in this first round of violence.
Even as it ended, a group of students turned back with a Chalo Tarnaka call. But they ran into a posse of armed policemen near the girls’ hostel. And, once again the same scenes unfolded with the students hurling stones at the cops and the latter retaliating.
After some time, the students turned their attention to the Osmania University police station. From then on, there was no stopping either the police or the students. Several students climbed atop the Bhostel and hurled “crude” bombs __ burning kerosene-filled bottles__ at the police who fired back teargas shells from their Vajra vehicles.
It is learnt that the students filled empty beer bottles with the kerosene. At one stage, the situation appeared uncontrollable as the students attempted to run out of the campus through the A ground in OUS (behind Aradhana theatre).
However, the policemen posted along the wall near the HUDA complex halted them in their tracks, shutting down the fly-over and the entire Tarnaka-Habsiguda route.
The cops took positions on the flyover.
By then, the campus had turned into a war zone. The police exploded stun grenades continuously. But the nearly 2,000-strong protestors all running in different directions gave them a tough time.
The clashes continued unabated till late into the night.
—-Agencies