Pro-Telangana stir intensifies, Seemandhra employees attacked

Hyderabad: Pro-Telangana forces today hurled stones at police and government employees from the Andhra-Rayalaseema regions in a bid to thwart a rally organised in Hyderabad by the Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers Association (APNGOA).

The violence continued even as the 24-hour bandh called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) disrupted life in the state capital.

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

The police were also greeted with stones when they tried to enter the hostel building to disperse the  violent mob.

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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 to control the pro-Telangana activists.

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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 Samithi or TRS rushed to the Assembly in the afternoon and staged a "deeksha" at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, protesting against the discriminatory attitude of the state administration.

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