"Peaceful" Telangana March Turns Violent

Streets surrounding Hussainsagar turned into a battle field, with a series of violent clashes between the Telangana protesters and the police in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Protestors of various political parties and Telangana organizations clashed with the police at various places in the city, including Khairatabad, Buddha Bhavan, Telugu Talli Flyover and Osmania University (OU), leading to teargas, water cannons and lathicharge by the police.

The government's stratergy of permitting the March at Necklace road from 3pm to 7pm on September 30 backfired as the learders of the march refused to budge and said that they would not leave until the formation of a separate state was announced. Police estimated that around 80,000 people participated in the "Sagara Haaram" Telangana March.

The leaders of the march included Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman M Kodandaraman and MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, S Venugopalchary, Nagam Janardhan Reddy and others. They continued with the march even after there were 2 spells of tear gas and water cannons forced on the protestors as a warning that the time allotted for the march was over.

Finally, around midnight, the march was withdrawn due to heavy rainfall. While withdrawing, M Kodandaraman said that there would be a "rasta roko" today and a "deeksha" at Indira Park on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the Telangana Student's JAC has called for a closure of all educational institutions on Monday to protest against police action on the Telangana activists during the march.

Eat Street, Jalavihar, Ohri's restaurant and few tourist spots on Necklace road were damaged due to heavy stone-pelting by the protestors. Around 20 vehicles belonging to the police and two belonging to the media were burnt and damaged by agitators around the routes to the venue. All MMTS trains on the routes Falaknuma-Lingampalli-Falaknuma, Falaknuma-Secunderabad-Hyderabad-Falaknuma and Hyderabad-Lingampalli-Hyderabad will remain cancelled upto 12pm today. A few other trains were also being re-scheduled and diverted.