Hyderabad/New Delhi: The Congress leadership
on Monday came under mounting pressure on the separate Telangana
issue as violence and arson continued in Telangana region of
Andhra Pradesh and TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao refused to
call off his fast-unto-death.
With the party leaders from the region stepping up the
campaign for a separate state, Congress President Sonia Gandhi
and senior leader Pranab Mukherjee tonight held consultations
with other senior colleagues including Home Minister P
Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony.
On advice from the party high command, Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister K Rosaiah held an all-party meeting in
Hyderabad in an attempt to sort out the issue.
Incidents of violence and arson continued at various
places in Telangana region on the second day of the 48-hour
bandh called by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in support of
its demand for a separate state.
About 1,000 pro-statehood students fought pitched
battles with the police at Manikeshwarnagar near Osmania
University campus in Hyderabad on being prevented from
proceeding to the campus.
The police, deployed in large numbers, used force to
disperse the agitators.
TRS MLAs Harish Rao and E Rajender and BJP leader in
the state assembly G Kishan Reddy were taken into custody when
they arrived at the university campus where more than 500
students launched a relay fast, they said.
Tension gripped the Osmania University campus
following deployment of armed policemen, including Rapid
Action Force, to thwart any attempt by pro-TRS students to
take out a rally to the state assembly whose winter session
began today.
Pro-Telangana activists set ablaze two school buses in
busy Musheerabad area after ordering the students to disembark
and in Adilabad, TRS activists vandalised the office of a
paper mill at Kagaznagar smashing windowpanes and damaging
furniture.
In Warangal district, agitating students chopped trees
and placed them on highways to block vehicular traffic and TRS
workers detained Delhi-bound AP Express for about 15 minutes
at Kagaznagar in Adilabad district before they were dispersed
by the Railway Protection Force.
Meanwhile, doctors attending on K Chandrasekhar Rao at
Nizam`s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) said though the
leader has become physically weak, his vital parameters were
normal and there was no cause for concern.
A group of party MPs from Telangana region G Vivekanand,
Madhu Yaksh Goud, Sarve Sathyanarayana and Anjan Kumar Yadav
also met the AICC in-charge for the state M Veerappa Moily and
Gandhi`s political secretary Ahmed Patel to apprise them of
the emerging situation in the state.
"We told the senior leadership here that the agitation
for Telangana is not confined to TRS now but students and
intellectuals have taken over it. Moilyji has told us that
they are discussing and something positive will emerge in two
days," Vivekanand told agency.
PTI
