Osmania tense, TRS calls for Telangana shutdown

HYDERABAD - Osmania University remained tense Friday following overnight violence and police firing while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) called for a Telangana shutdown Saturday to protest “police repression”.

Protesting the arrest of their leaders, students staged a protest at Osmania University police station on the campus Friday. The police arrested the protesters.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of OU students has strongly protested the arrest of Raja Ram Yadav and other leaders by the police late Thursday night. The students have termed it a conspiracy to suppress the movement for separate statehood to Telangana.

Another group of students continued their silent protest on the campus, squatting on the road with black scarves tied to their mouths.

Additional forces, including the paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF), were deployed at the campus to maintain law and order.

Police have imposed prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more people in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Educational institutions remained closed in parts of Hyderabad and nine other districts of Telangana on a call given by the JAC to protest the police action.

Police had Thursday night fired rubber bullets and teargas shells to disperse students who resorted to violence, damaging buses and shops in Tarnaka, Habsiguda and other areas surrounding the campus.

One person was injured when the police fired rubber bullets. Earlier, five students sustained injuries in the clash with police.

The violence broke out when students tried to take out a rally to protest the government turning down their demand for postponing the written examination for recruitment of sub-inspectors of police in Telangana till the issue of Hyderabad as a free zone is resolved.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah had Thursday evening rejected the demand to postpone the exam scheduled to be held Dec 18-19. He, however, clarified that the posts in Hyderabad would not be filled till the central government takes a decision on amending the presidential order.

Rosaiah made it clear that the exam for recruitment in four other districts of Telangana would be conducted as scheduled.

Pro-Telangana parties have been demanding that the exam be postponed as this would deny jobs to locals in Hyderabad. They want the government to reserve the jobs for locals as is being done in the rest of Telangana.

The Supreme Court had last year declared Hyderabad a free zone, where people from other regions of the state can also get government jobs in Hyderabad.

The parties fighting for separate statehood to Telangana alleged that it is a violation of the assurances given to people of the region at the time of its merger with the then Andhra state in 1956 to form Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, protesting the police action against students, TRS has called for a shutdown in Telangana Saturday.

TRS, which staged protests across Telangana Thursday, has threatened to intensify the agitation.

The issue has heated up at a time when the Srikrishna committee constituted by the central government is preparing its report on the issue of a separate Telangana. The report is to be submitted to the central government by Dec 31.