HYDERABAD: With the whole city under strict vigil of police, pro-Telangana students chose to take the MMTS to reach Necklace road, after which they started ransacking the station by pelting stones on Monday.
Around 1 p.m, more than 250 students and lawyers converged at the station from different directions, including students who came in the train and started pelting stones at the reservation complex even while some persons were in the building to buy train tickets.
Soon those inside the complex started running in panic as all glass panes got damaged.
Some agitators who were on the platform then moved to the other platform on the Park hotel side and began pelting stones on the other reservation complex there.
“Protestors wearing bags reached the location raising slogans in support of Telangana and against Governor ESL Narasimhan. They started running towards the reservation complex and started pelting stones. It was very scary,’’ Veeramani, a sweeper who witnessed the incident recollected.
Later, they forced themselves into the reservation counter and set ablaze computers and other gadgets there.
“There was nearly Rs 68,000 cash in the drawer but agitators did not touch it,’’ a railway employee told police.
But police are clueless about how so many students could gather without getting noticed when locations around Raj Bhavan were on high alert.
The agitators were inside the station for about 15 minutes and fled in different directions after ransacking the premises.
The incident was a shock to city police who were waiting at Raj Bhavan and Khairatabad to foil the attempt of Telangana Advocates JAC which planned ‘Chalo Raj Bhavan’.
On information, forces were rushed to the Necklace road station but it was too late as protestors already damaged things there. Immediately after the incident, plying of trains via Necklace road was stopped.
Hyderabad police commissioner A K Khan said that advocates were indulged in creating violence at the station and that some of them were taken into custody.
At the same time, a pitched battle was witnessed at Nizam College hostel. Police had to continuously lob tear gas shells at agitating students who kept hurling stones at them.
At one point of time, police even pressed into service a vajra, new multi-purpose action vehicle for controlling strike and law disorders.After nearly an hour of continuous unrest, police finally retracted the forces.
“We have boycotted classes for the day and decided to take a rally to Assembly. But police resisted our move and fired tear gas shells into the hostel,’’ Mahesh, a student said.
-- srinath@expressbuzz.com