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Clash between police and students in Hyderabad over Telangana issue

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^{Wed, 09 Dec 2009 at 16:07 IST}

Hyderabad: Hyderabad was on security alert after police arrested several students and teachers of Osmania University to quell protests for a separate state as another group tried to lay siege to the state assembly.

About 3,000 armed policemen moved to the campus and swooped on the students on hunger strike to demand a Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

Policemen, including paramilitary personnel, forcibly evacuated all hostels on the campus and took students into custody. The police also used force when students and teachers tried to resist the arrests.

« Prohibitory orders are in force and the assembly here is unlawful and hence we have arrested the students, » said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sheikh Mohammed Iqbal.

The arrests were to foil the students’ plans to march to the Assembly on Thursday. « There is no permission for the rally. We have our apprehension. Anti-social elements might create trouble, » the police officer said.

For the second time in three days, journalists also came under attack by the police on the campus. A few journalists covering the arrests were beaten up. Raising slogans against police, the media persons staged a sit-in.

Police also arrested legislative council member Chukka Ramaiah when he tried to go to Osmania University. The eminent academician sat on the road in protest when police stopped him.

Tension also prevailed at the high-security assembly building when activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) tried to lay siege to the assembly and nearby council building.

Taking the police by surprise, over 200 students reached the assembly and tried to barge in. Raising slogans of « Jai Telangana » they clashed with police at the main gate. They also squatted on the road demanding that the assembly pass a resolution for the formation of a Telangana state.

Police arrested the students. Senior officials ordered an inquiry to find out how the group could reach the assembly when policemen have been deployed on all the routes leading to the building.

Over 15,000 policemen from Andhra Pradesh and neighboring states have been deployed in Hyderabad to foil student plans to march to the assembly.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 banning the assembly of five or more people have been imposed in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the Telangana region as the movement for separate statehood has intensified.

Telangana movement out of students’ hands: Police

HYDERABAD, décembre 9, 2009

TRS Chief K Chandrasekhara Rao’s indefinite fast enters the 11th day, and student supporters add momentum to the movement. Police now fear that Maoists might infiltrate the movement and seize the opportunity that Thursday’s planned ‘huge gathering’ might present them with.

The State government on Wednesday expressed apprehension over Maoists infiltrating into the ongoing agitation for Telangana and of their seizing the opportunity of the ‘possible huge gathering’ expected in Hyderabad on Thursday in response to the ‘Chalo Assembly’ call given by the Joint Action Committee of students.

Inspector-General of Police, A.R. Anuradha, the spokesperson of the Police Department, said, “We have received Intelligence reports that the movement has gone out of the students’ hands and that Maoists and other professional agitators are moving in. Given such a situation, we do not wish to take any chance of a law and order problem. The Maoists already believe in Dandakaranya.”

She added that the issue of Telangana was known to everyone and there was no need for a huge gathering to represent the matter once again to the government. “The Central and State governments are already working on the issue and people also know the sensitivities involved,” she reiterated, conveying the government’s appeal for people to observe restraint and stay away from the twin cities.

It may be recalled that the police have already issued orders under Section 144, banning any ‘unlawful assembly’ in and around the State capital and in the Telangana region till December 13. “On Thursday, we will not allow any traffic on the roads around the Assembly and on flyovers,” Mrs. Anuradha stated.

Fielding questions, she said that even in the disturbances witnessed at the Osmania University campus on Wednesday morning, they had reports of the participation of certain radical elements.

She said that all cases registered against the fasting Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, K. Chandrasekhara Rao had been lifted. “He is no longer in the custody of the police.” However, seven leaders of the JAC were still under police custody, she added.

Violent protests shut down high-tech Indian city

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) – Violent protests by students for a separate state to be carved out of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh shut down the main city of Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Police in riot gear manned street barricades to contain the unrest in normally peaceful Hyderabad city, home to multinational and local hi-tech firms ranging from Microsoft and Google to Mahindra Satyam.

Businesses were shut and hundreds arrested after police clashed with slogan-shouting students at the main Osmania University, demanding that the Telangana region, including Hyderabad be declared a state.

« I have never before seen the university look like a fortress, » a professor at Osmania told NDTV news channel.

Demands for Telangana state have flared from time to time since 1956, when the region was merged with Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh. While people across the state speak the same Telugu language, there are some cultural differences.

Hyderabad, modeled as a rival to Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, has a mix of modern software firms and gleaming malls next to ancient mosques and forts.

State Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, a member of the Congress party that heads the national ruling coalition, said he was concerned the violent protests could scare investors.

The regional Telangana Rashtra Samiti is spearheading the protest, and its leader K. Chandrasekhara Rao started a fast until death ten days ago.

More than 300 people, mostly students, were killed in widespread violence over the statehood demand between 1969 and 1972.

While the Congress has been non-committal on the demand for a separate state, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party, is supporting the movement.

(Writing by Rina Chandran; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

~ par Alain Bertho sur 9 décembre 2009.

Publié dans दंगा, émeutes, riots