Hyderabad, January 29: Protests rocked the Kakatiya, Osmania and Telangana universities on Friday with students taking out rallies demanding that their semester examinations be deferred till a bill for the creation of a separate Telangana State was introduced in Parliament.
The Kakatiya University in Warangal appeared to be the epicentre and its tremors were felt in the other two. More than 9,000 students were to take the LLM, LLB, MBA and PG first-year and second-year semester exams this morning in the four districts that fall under the jurisdiction of the KU. But the boycott call given by the joint action committee (JAC) of the KU students evoked an overwhelming response as just about 74 students appeared for the exams. The rest hit the streets, with many of them tearing apart hall-tickets both at the KU campus and other places.
Thousands of students converged on the KU Arts College at Subedari and the varsity campus from where they took out a rally to the office of the Superintendent of Police in Warangal. The police placed barricades and barbed wires on the route but the protestors forced their way past them prompting the cops to whip out their lathis.
While the boys ran helter-skelter, girls squatted on the roads. With very few women constables available, the police found it difficult to disperse them and had to sit out the protestors. The stand off continued for over three hours even as traffic went haywire in the city. The KUJAC called for a bandh of all educational institutions in Warangal district on Saturday in protest against the police action.
The news of the lathicharge on KU students created ripples at the Osmania Univeristy in Hyderabad and the Telangana University in Nizamabad. At both the places, the students tore the hall-tickets and boycotted examinations. On the OU campus, the students marched towards the NCC gate demanding that MBA exams, set to begin on Saturday, be postponed. The police prevented them from venturing out of the campus which led to mild tension in the area. A few protestors reportedly hurled stones at the cops but the latter brought the situation under control immediately. A group of students tried to break free and cross over to Tarnaka, just outside the campus. The police blocked the route and stopped them at the B.Ed college. After a mild scuffle, the students dispersed. The OU JAC called for a boycott of the MBA exams.
–Agencies