With the pro-Telangana outfits gearing up to show their resentment during the brief three-hour visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Hyderabad Tuesday, tight security arrangements have been put in place.
Eventhough, the Prime Minister would be flying to the COP-11 venue from the Begumpet airport and back, residents will have to suffer traffic restrictions on the roads leading to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). People passing by the Begumpet airport are likely to be frisked and checked.
With the Telangana JAC and TRS making it clear that they intend to stage protests to highlight the attitude of the Centre regarding the demand for separate statehood, police top brass are taking no chances. Around 700 police personnel are being deployed around the Begumpet airport alone. “We have made all the security arrangements. Protest is a democratic right and it is fine as long as it is peaceful,” Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma told Express. He said that nobody will be allowed in the airport before the PM’s aircraft lands.
Meanwhile, Telangana groups have announced a dharna at Indira Park from Tuesday morning. Police sources said there are vague inputs that some activists may try to march towards the airport. “We will have a checkpost on both sides of the road leading to the Begumpet airport,” sources said. Osmania University JAC and Telangana students JAC have planned to stage protests near the airport.
TJAC chairman Professor M Kodandaram said they would hoist black flags and release black balloons as a mark of protest.