HYDERABAD: After a brief lull, violence returned to the Osmania University (OU) campus on Tuesday, the first day of the 48-hour bandh call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC). Several students and a few policemen sustained minor injuries in pitched battles fought all through the day on the campus.
Trouble started at about 10.45 am when a group of 200 students took out a rally from Arts College and headed towards NCC gate to welcome the suspended TDP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy into the campus. The OUJAC had invited the former TDP leader to the campus to address the gathering and persuade the six students, all sub-inspector post aspirants, who have been on an indefinite hunger strike for the past six days demanding that the Centre delete 14-F of the Presidential Order, to call it off.
However, police prevented the students from leaving the campus and stopped Nagam Janardhan Reddy from entering it. The former TDP leader along with five of his associates, including resigned legislator K Harishwar Reddy, were taken into preventive custody and shifted to the Amberpet police station. The arrest of the Nagam group infuriated the OU students and they tried to force their way out through the police cordon.
To disperse the students, police resorted to a lathicharge. According to OU Vidyarthi Ikyavedika president K Mahesh, at least 10 students sustained minor injuries in the incident. After retreating into the campus, angry students started pelting stones at the police personnel, resulting in injuries to a CRPF constable and a CAR constable. Police responded to stone pelting by lobbing teargas shells and stun grenades.
