More than 500 students, under the leadership of the Telangana Students’ Joint Action Committee, clashed with police on the Osmania University campus for the second day in a row on Thursday.
The students rained stones on the police after they were prevented from taking out a rally from the campus to the Assembly. The cops had to fire tear-gas shells to disperse the mob. Two groups, comprising eight and 10 members each, however, managed to sneak through and tried to enter the Assembly premises. They were all taken into custody, while another four were arrested on the campus.
Trouble began around 11 a.m. when students set out from the Arts College towards the NCC gate in a rally. The police and the rapid action force (RAF) pushed them back. Within half-an-hour, the rally turned violent as the students began to hurl stones at the police.
Four protesters were caught by the police as soon as the clash began. Unlike Wednesday, the students’ numbers swelled forcing the police to fire tear-gas shells. The cat and mouse game between the students and the police lasted for over two hours.
Around 12.30 p.m., a group of 10 students made a futile attempt to enter the Assembly, while a second group made a similar bid an hour later. All the students were arrested and shifted to the Nampally police station.
The violence in the varsity posed a problem to foreign students who came to the University Foreign Relations Office (UFRO) to gain admission in OU “I have never seen such kind of violence back in my country. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have chosen to apply here,” said M Hosseini, a 21-year-old Iranian.
Traffic was also paralysed as all the roads leading to the campus were closed. Commuters had to take diversions from Vidyanagar which led to traffic jams.