Rayala Telangana issue: Protesting OU students attack cops

HYDERABAD: Tension prevailed on the Osmania University (OU) campus here when pro-Telangana students attacked security personnel with stones prompting them to lob tear gas shells, after the protesters were prevented from taking out a rally from the varsity. The protesting students wanted to take out a procession from the OU campus as part of the bandh call given by TRS to oppose the proposal of Rayala Telangana. However, police stopped them near NCC gate on the campus, police said.

Angered over not being allowed to take out the rally, the slogan shouting protesters forcibly tried to pull aside the barricades on the OU campus and also poured petrol and set on fire some of the barricades. The students then started hurling stones at police after which the security personnel lobbed tear-gas shells to disperse them, they said.

"The stone pelting is continuing and police fired tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters and control the situation," OU Inspector P Ashok told PTI. An inspector, Vijay Srinivas, sustained minor injuries in the attack, he said. Meanwhile, police began efforts to take the protesting students into preventive custody.

Pro-Telangana students had also clashed with police yesterday when the latter foiled their plan to take out a bike rally from the OU campus towards Gun Park as part of protest rallies' call given against the proposal of Rayala Telangana. The situation on the OU campus otherwise had remained peaceful for the past several months after the ruling Congress (at Centre) approved creation of a separate Telangana state.

The bandh has been called by TRS and other pro-Telangana organisations against reported proposal of bigger Telangana which entails splitting Rayalaseema region and adding two of its four districts to the ten districts of proposed Telangana state. TRS has appealed to the people from all walks of life to voluntarily observe the shutdown. Rayala Telangana envisages adding Anantapur and Kurnool districts to the proposed state of Telangana.