Pro-Telangana stir intensifies; Seemandhra employees attacked

Police had to open teargas as violent Telangana elements pelted stones

Pro-Telangana forces today pelted stones at police and employees from Andhra-Rayalaseema regions in a bid to thwart a rally organised here by AP Non-Gazetted Officers Association even as the 24-hour bandh called by the Telangana JAC disrupted life in the state capital.

Scores of pro-Telangana elements, masquerading as students, gathered clandestinely in the Nizam College hostel building adjacent to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, the venue of "Save Andhra Pradesh" rally, and hurled stones at employees from Andhra-Rayalaseema regions, who were making way into the stadium.

"We were quietly walking on the road leading to the stadium when suddenly we were pelted with stones. Two of my colleagues were wounded in the incident," Visweswara Rao, a government employee from Adoni in Kurnool district, said.

Police, who entered the hostel building to disperse the violent mob, were also greeted with stones.

However, police in riot gear took several "outsiders" into custody and whisked them away from the hostel building, a senior police officer said.

Police had to open teargas as violent Telangana elements, in the garb of students, rained stones on them.

Then they tried to march from the Osmania University campus to LB Stadium to spoil the rally, police said.

Notwithstanding the appeal made by TJAC and pro-Telangana parties for calm, several miscreants virtually ran riot both at the Nizam College hostel as well as the University.

Aggravating the tense atmosphere in the city, legislators belonging to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti rushed to the Assembly in the afternoon to stage a "deeksha" at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, protesting the discriminatory attitude of the state administration.