The Osmania University campus in Hyderabad, the hotbed of agitations, turned into a war zone once again following a clash between student protesters and the police today. The refusal of permission by the police for a spontaneous rally by the students triggered heated altercation which eventually turned into a pitched battle.

The students took out the rally in support of the ‘Chalo Assembly’ protest called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) tomorrow. The state government and the Hyderabad police have prohibited the planned agitation citing previous incidents of violence.

Demanding that the police permit the ‘Chalo Assembly’ agitation, the Osmania university students came out on to the campus streets and began a march up to the state assembly. As expected, a heavy posse of police stopped the rally at the NCC Gate. They erected heavy barbed-wire fence to prevent the agitators from surging ahead.

The students, who were locked in a heated argument with the police, soon turned restive and belligerent. With the protesters damaging the barricades and even overcoming the barbed-wire fence, the police fired tear gas shells to restrain them. Infuriated by the police action, the students began pelting stones at the cops, triggering tension in the area.

After a brief clash, the police drove the students back into the university and regained control over the situation.

While the university remains eerily quiet, the rest of the city resembled a fortress due to unprecedented security measures taken by the police. The city police have been placed on utmost state of preparedness to prevent the possible sneaking of ‘Chalo Assembly’ participants into the city from various entry points. Teams of policemen in riot gear have been deployed at every key installation.

The police have also sealed off a few busy arteries using barricades causing untold inconvenience to the regular commuters. The authorities anticipate serious law and order trouble in view of the Maoists openly extending their support to the rally tomorrow.

The police and the government authorities have responded to the TJAC’s call with a spree of preventive arrests in the districts. More than a 1,000 TRS followers and leaders have so far been taken into preventive custody in Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal districts. Trying to stop the agitators from reaching the state capital, the police are also foisting bind-over cases against many of them.

Meanwhile, a few priests advocating a separate Telangana state grabbed the eyeballs in Warangal today. They performed ‘Rudra Yaagam’, praying for the success of the ‘Chalo Assembly’ stir.