Unannounced Public Celebrations Safety Risk: C V Anand

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand today expressed concern over spontaneous and unruly celebrations on city streets, warning that such gatherings posed a serious threat to public safety - similar to the recent incident in Bengaluru.

"Our night-round officers were completely taken by surprise around midnight as hordes of youngsters and revellers descended on Tank Bund, NTR Marg and Necklace Road. They behaved in an unruly manner, as seen in several alarming videos. Traffic was jammed in all directions. Given the situation and the hooliganism, additional forces were rushed in and a lathi charge had to be carried out to disperse the crowd. This is not the national team winning the World Cup - it's just a franchise called RCB, which operates on commercial lines and doesn't have a single Hyderabad player in it. It's not even a Hyderabad-based team," he said.

"Watching and hearing about the stampede in Bengaluru made me wonder - what if there had been casualties in Hyderabad too? Would anyone still justify celebrating RCB's win here? With social media playing a huge role across the country and the world in galvanising crowds, the police are needing to be alert for everything and everyone. But is that humanly possible? That's what I'm wondering," he added.

For the unversed, on June 4, 2025, a deadly stampede occurred outside Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) victory parade celebrating their maiden IPL title. The event, announced just hours earlier, attracted an estimated 2-3 lakh fans, overwhelming the stadium's 35,000 capacity. Despite free online passes, thousands entered without tickets around 4:50 pm, triggering chaos. The stampede resulted in 11 deaths, including those of three teenagers - the youngest just 13 years old - and over 50 injuries, with many trampled or suffocated in the crowd. The victims were mostly youths aged 20-35.