Hundreds of students and dozens of politicians from various political parties were arrested as police attempted to restrain Osmania University (OU) students from going on an indefinite hunger strike in support of statehood to Telangana.
The Osmania University students joint action committee (OUJAC) had given a call to students of various universities in Telangana to participate in the mass hunger strike starting from Monday.
Students from various educational institutions in Telangana had set out to the OU campus in Hyderabad but the police pickets at various locations intercepted them.
According to police officials, about 500 students of OU and Kakatiya University managed to reach the protest site and sat on hunger strike.
Meanwhile, a group of students tried to take out a protest rally from the OU campus to Raj Bhavan. About 4,000 policemen prevented the students from coming out of the campus. “About eight rounds of tear gas shells were used to control the crowd,” M Ratan, additional director-general (law and order), said.
The students complained of indiscriminate lathi charge and usage of rubber bullets.
