Pro-Telangana students give bandh call for Friday

Reacting strongly to the Srikrishna Committee report, pro-Telangana student groups on Thursday held protests at the Osmania University in Hyderabad and gave a call for a bandh on Friday in Hyderabad and Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.

Tension prevailed at the Osmania University campus after the report was made public. Groups of students allegedly torched a bus and pelted stones, while police lobbed teargas shells to disperse protesters. Police said students hurled stones at police and the clash left at least four students and a police officer injured.

The Telangana Students Joint Action Committee, which gave the bandh call, demanded that the Centre should immediately bring a bill in the Parliament for formation of Telangana state. Denouncing the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana, the activists and students earlier tried to take out a march to the Raj Bhavan from the university campus.

Students kept hurling stones at security forces near the OU police station and Tarnaka area till late evening, a senior police officer said adding the situation is tense but under control.

Minutes after the Srikrishna report was made public, the pro-Telangana students allegedly burnt a relief bus near the Arts College on the campus which had come to tow away another torched bus that was set on fire by miscreants on Wednesday night.

"The Srikrishna Committee report is against our demands and we don't accept it. We have given a bandh call on Friday against the report and also to condemn the police lathi-charge in which ten students were injured at the Osmania University," said TSJAC spokesman P Kailash.

Anticipating trouble, the Andhra Pradesh police had made elaborate security arrangements across the state, particularly at the OU campus which had become the epicenter of the Telangana movement last year.