The Telangana bandh called to protest against the arrests of pro-activists of separate state during the “Sagara Haram” march on Sunday received a mixed response on Monday.
The bandh call was given by the Student JACs of Osmania University and Kakatiya University and supported by the TJAC besides some political parties to condemn the police high-handedness and unprovoked detention of scores of separatists who were on their way to participate in the march.
While the bandh evoked good response in the districts, it was lukewarm in the state capital. The bus services in towns and villages in the region was adversely affected with the Telangana agitators preventing the buses to move out of the depots. However, the services remained unaffected in the twin cities.
The educational institutions in the entire region remained closed as the managements have declared a holiday as a precautionary measure. The South Central Railway has cancelled as many as 121 MMTs train services in the city bandh had also cancelled or partially cancelled a number of trains from the city.
However the OU Campus, the hot bed of the Telangana movement, turned into a cauldron with the police and the students as usual engaged in a pitched battle. The police also lobbed tear gas shells to disperse students who rained stones on the OU police station.
Expecting trouble in the campus with the students planning rally, the police virtually sealed all entries to the campus by erecting barricades and heavy deployment of armed policemen. The students took out a procession with an effigy of the government from the Arts College and marched towards Tarnaka. However, they were stopped by the police which provoked the students to rain stones on the policemen and also on the nearby police station. As the situation was going out of control, tear gas shells were lobbed.(NSS)