'Chalo Assembly' bid foiled, 1400 activists held

Pro-Telangana parties' march to the Andhra Pradesh assembly was foiled on Friday by police who took into preventive custody around 1,400 statehood activists, including senior leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and blocked all roads leading to the legislature building.

The rally over the statehood issue passed off peacefully without any major untoward incidents.

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Fearing law and order trouble, the Andhra Pradesh police had denied permission to the Telangana Joint Action Committee for the 'Chalo Assembly' rally. Despite this, the group went ahead with the march to highlight the statehood demand.

The police, who suspected that Maoists may infiltrate into the rally, had turned the city into a fortress. Nearly 10,000 policemen and 20 companies of central para-military forces (around 2,000 personnel) were deployed as similar pro-Telangana protests in the past had turned violent.

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The roads leading to the Assembly building were closed for traffic and prohibitory orders imposed to ensure that the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, which is in session, had no disruption in view of the rally.

The police took into preventive custody about 1,400 Telangana supporters -- 900 under Hyderabad police commissionerate and 476 in Cyberabad police commissionerate.

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Scores of statehood activists were detained in other Telangana` districts and all of them were let off later, police said. Several members of Legislative Assembly and other leaders of the TRS and BJP and the JAC were taken into preventive custody during the day.

With elaborate security arrangements in place, the assembly had a smooth session, though it was adjourned for the day without transacting any real business as MLAs of TRS, BJP and the Communist Party of India stalled the proceedings over the statehood issue.

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However, high drama was witnessed in the assembly premises with two TRS MLAs climbing the party's legislature party office building and threatening to jump off. They were brought down by security personnel after about an hour.

About 20 MLAs of TRS, BJP and CPI, who were sitting at the Assembly gates after it was adjourned, were detained. The OsmaniaUniversity, the hotbed of statehood agitation by students, continued to witness clashes with security personnel for the third consecutive day.

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The protesters hurled stones prompting police to fire tear gas shells, the police said. Meanwhile, TRS MLAs burnt an effigy of the "Seemandhra government" near the legislators' entrance gate. The party claims that the present Congress government represents only Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Rebel Congress Members of Parliament G Vivek and M Jagannatham, who recently joined TRS, were taken into custody when they tried to go ahead with the rally.

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Telangana JAC Chairman M Kodandaram was also detained. Those taken into preventive custody were later let off. Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, in-charge of Congress affairs in the state, appreciated the utmost restraint shown by the police and administration and the "deft handling" of the event, official sources said.

Alleging that the Congress government resorted to repressive measures to curb the statehood agitation, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao called for a shutdown in Telangana region on Saturday.

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The CPI, a strong supporter of separate Telangana, however, said the TRS' decision was unilateral. The JAC Chairman said the Telangana supporters achieved moral victory since they succeeded in voicing the statehood demand forcefully.

Large scale preventive detentions and 'bind overs' (an undertaking for good behaviour and maintaining peace) of Telangana supporters were enforced during the last few days. 

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