Several cops, students injured in OU violence

HYDERABAD: Clashes between students and police continued for the second day on Osmania University campus with both the parties fighting pitched battles for over eight hours on Tuesday. While the students hurled stones and molotov cocktails (petrol bombs) at the police and paramilitary force personnel stationed outside the university premises, the latter retaliated with tear gas shells.
About 10 police personnel and 16 students were injured in the voilence.Eight of the injured students were admitted to Gandhi Hospital.
Trouble started when students led by members of Telangana Journalists' Association took out a rally from Arts College protesting against the alleged police action on media personnel on February 21. While the protesters staged a dharna near B Hostel, the situation turned volatile when a group of students dropped a molotov cocktail right before the police cordon. Interestingly, the students had smuggled in the explosive inside an effigy of DGP K Aravind Rao which they were planning to burn in front of the OU police station.
While the police personnel were caught off guard by the explosion, students pelted stones from B Hostel, forcing them to resort to firing tear gas shells. The police fired over 600 rounds of tear gas shells and stun grenades to disperse students.
Interestingly, while the protest started with just 50 students in the morning, in about 15 minutes hundreds of students joined in to hurl stones at the police. The students pelted stones at police personnel stationed in front of the OU police station and at the Adikmet-Tarnaka road. They did not spare from their missile attacks even the vehicles passing through this stretch.
By afternoon tension seemed to abate with students resorting to just sloganeering at Arts College. However, by about 2.30 pm more students came out of the hostels and again resorted to stone-pelting on the police. Some students stationed atop B Hostel hurled molotov cocktails at the police. The police also entered the campus on several occasions to chase students away.
Meanwhile, the State Human Right Commission (SHRC) sent its peace committee representatives to OU campus to take stock of the situation. A report on the same will be submitted by the peace committee on February 28. Meanwhile, students who tried to enter the OU police station premises along with the SHRC members were stopped by the police. Angered by this, the students pulled down the newly-contructed compound wall of the station.
Telangana students Joint Action Committee representatives stated that they will continue to strike till the bill supporting Telangana state formation is introduced in Parliament. "Several students were injured and we have deposed before SHRC. We condemn police action and expect the authorities to grant us our demands," stated Tirumani Kondal, spokesperson, OU JAC. The students also stated that media personnel of regional news channels were hurt in police action. "They targeted media personnel of channels supporting the Telangana cause including Raj TV. Action should be taken against police officials who entered the campus," stated OU JAC representatives.
The stand-off between the police and students continued till late in the night. D N Reddy, in-charge vice chancellor of OU, asked "all concerned to help maintain peace on campus".