Hyderabad: The bandh observed in districts
of Telangana region to protest the firing on those supporting
the separate statehood issue in Mahbubabad town passed off
peacefully on Saturday, barring stray incidents of damage to public
and private properties, police said.
Apart from resorting to road blockades and burning buses,
pro-Telangana activists held dharnas, took out rallies and
burnt effigies of Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy, Parkal MLA
Konda Surekha and her MLC husband K Murali at Osmania
University campus and in Nizamabad district, they said.
Holding the Kadapa MP responsible for yesterday's
violence at Mahbubabad railway station in Warangal district in
which nine pro-Telangana activists suffered injuries after
gunmen of Congress legislators allegedly fired on them, the
Telangana Joint Action Committee had given a bandh call in the
region on Saturday.
Elsewhere in Rayalaseema region, denouncing the
preventive arrest of Jaganmohan, his followers and Congress
workers also observed bandh in Anantapur and Chittoor
district, though it hardly had any impact on normal life.
Strongly condemning the Mahbubabad incident,
pro-Telangana agitators enforced bandh in Warangal, Medak,
Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Nizamabad districts even
as police took 897 persons into preventive custody and also
arrested five persons after registering 17 cases under various
IPC sections, police said.
The Telangana statehood supporters hurled stones at the
residence of Nirmal MLA A Maheshwar Reddy, (who belongs to
Praja Rajyam party) in Adilabad district.
Three buses of a private school were burnt in Warangal
district by pro-Telangana activists, who also set fire to one
RTC bus at Kukatpally and torched two private buses at
Dundigal area in Hyderabad besides damaging seven RTC buses in
Adilabad, Khammam, Warangal and Yadagirigutta, police said.
A report from Medak district said the bandh was
successful and peaceful with shops, business establishments
and petrol bunks remaining closed. The protesters held
'rasta-rokos' at Siddipet, Medak, Sadasivpet, Narayankhed,
other towns.
TRS and BJP workers blocked the NH-9 (Hyderabad-Mumbai)
near Sangareddy for over 30 minutes, resulting in heavy
traffic jam on the route. Police took TRS leader Harish Rao
into preventive custody at Siddipet while he and others held a
dharna.
The bandh in Warangal district was total and peaceful,
according to a report. Banks, shops, petrol bunks, vegetable
markets remained closed and Andhra Pradesh State Transport
Corporation (APSRTC) suspended services in all eight depots in
the district.
Condemning the Mahbubabad violence, members of TRS, BJP,
T-JAC held demonstrations at Hanamkonda for over two hours and
raised anti-Jaganmohan slogans.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 22:15