If it was Osmania University which boiled with T-protests on Sunday, the venue shifted to Indira Park on Monday with students keeping the police on tenterhooks for the entire day by making vain attempts to reach Gun Park as part of their proposed rally from Indira Park to Gun Park.
Hundreds of student activists were arrested across the city, some on the OU campus and others at Indira Park, Nizam College and near the Assembly. The roads leading to Gun Park were fortified and youngsters moving in groups were whisked away by the police.
At Indira Park, the police did not allow youngsters to enter the Samara Deeksha venue as the OUJAC proposed to take out a rally from there. Barricades were erected and barbed wire fences were put up to prevent protestors from breaking the police cordon. Water cannons and Vajra vehicles were deployed to prevent students from rushing towards Gun Park but luckily the need to use them did not arise.
The OUJAC gave a call for the rally as a show of strength to the Centre for delaying its decision on separate Telangana.
In the morning, a group of students from the Nizam College hostel, which is a stone’s throw from Gun Park, took out a rally but nearly 30 of them were arrested by the police. The others staged a protest in front of the hostel alleging that the police were resorting to indiscriminate arrests.
Meanwhile, another group of students who gathered at the Samara Deeksha venue also tried to take out a rally but were obstructed by the police.
The students managed to pull out the barbed wires and dislodge the barricades in their bid to rush towards Gun Park, but police and the TJAC leaders prevented them.
In the melee, additional DCP K Ramachandran fell down while controlling the agitators and suffered a minor injury.