Telangana Rail Roko: 104 Arrested

The police on Thursday took 104 agitators into preventive custody, following the 12-hour rail roko call given by the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (JAC) and the Osmania University Joint Action Committee (OUJAC) pressing for the introduction of a Bill in the Parliament for a separate Telangana State.

City Police Commissioner A K Khan stated that those arrested included senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya, Karunakar from the Telangana Lecturers Forum, and Telangana advocates.

Khan said that the police had made elaborate arrangements for the maintenance of law and order in the twin cities, particularly at the Secunderabad, Nampally and Kachiguda railway stations.

The top cop said the city police, along with the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force, patrolled railway stations and tracks to prevent the uprooting of fish plates and railway tracks by Telangana leaders.

He said there no major incident was reported as part of the rail roko agitation.

Meanwhile, the South Central Railway cancelled 31 Express trains and 116 passenger/MMTs trains, re-scheduled 23 Express trains, and diverted 23 trains - all passing through the Telangana region - and terminated 20 long-distance trains travelling out of the Telangana region.

In order to prevent inconvenience to the railway commuters, the State Road Transport Corporation also ran 300 additional special buses from the Secunderabad and Nampally railway stations, besides from various important towns from where trains were obstructed or terminated by the agitators. (INN)