As expected, the first and violent repercussions of Srikrishna report were witnessed in Osmania University campus here.
The atmosphere on the sprawling campus right in heart of the city was tense from Wednesday evening. Unidentified persons pelted stones at city buses and set afire one State run bus in the night. A rescue service bus met same fate on Thursday.
From morning, the university campus was resonating with Jai Telangana, anti-government and Srikrishna Committee slogans. Trouble started when some students, who were a part of a procession that was going towards the university gate, were stopped by the police, deployed in heavy numbers on the campus. The agitated crowd resorted to stone pelting, forcing the police to baton charge and fire tear gas shells.
The Telangana Student Joint Action Committee (JAC) called for bandh of educational institutions in the region.
“The situation is bad. The police had to baton charge to bring the situation under control,” a Police Inspector said. Following the incident, the police cordoned off the area.
Osmania University, set up in 1918 by the then Nizam of Hyderabad State, is in the heart of the city. In December 2009 also, the University was the nerve centre of the agitation with Kakatiya University at Warnagal also witnessing protests.
“We would come back to the State now to lead the agitation. We would make it a peaceful protest,” S Rajesh, chairperson, Kakatiya JAC told HT from New Delhi, where they sat on protests at Parliament, AICC etc.
{{/usCountry}}“We would come back to the State now to lead the agitation. We would make it a peaceful protest,” S Rajesh, chairperson, Kakatiya JAC told HT from New Delhi, where they sat on protests at Parliament, AICC etc.
{{/usCountry}}While the report, which did not overwhelmingly support Telangana, did not affect Andhra-Rayalaseema regions, in several districts of Telangana there were protest marches and rasta rokos like in Karimnagar.