Hyderabad: Police fired tear gas shells and lathi-charged striking workers during the ‘Million March’ called by the Joint Action Committee on Saturday evening, resulting in injuries to both protesters and police personnel. Despite this, some protesters managed to enter Tank Bund by breaking through the barricades.
The police fired tear gas shells at Domalguda to disperse strikers heading towards Tank Bund. At least 30 persons, including five policemen, received injuries.
Following this, the police said that frontal organisations of the Maoists had participated in the protest and hurled stones at the police.
Earlier, the police placed 1,266 persons under preventive arrest. Police diverted traffic away from Tank Bund to prevent activists from gathering there.
There was a massive deployment of the police to prevent RTC workers and Opposition activists from reaching Tank Bund. The police had erected barricades on the roads leading to Hussainsagar.
It was peaceful till afternoon, as RTC leaders coming from the districts and political leaders were taken into preventive
custody. The situation changed towards the evening. A large number of striking employees suddenly rushed towards Tank Bund from the Lower Tank Bund road and the Liberty theatre side, through bylanes, to reach the Ambedkar
statue.
Though the police tried to stop the employees, some of them managed to give them the slip and started shouting slogans against Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The protesters resorted to stone-pelting at eight different places and the police caned them which resulted in injuries to at least 30 persons.
A Nepali national working at a hotel near Liberty was beaten by the police, who assumed that he was among the protesters. The man suffered bleeding injuries to his head. With that, the protesters resorted to stone-pelting. The police then fired tear gas shells at the protesters and dispersed them.
Hundreds of RTC employees, workers and leaders of Opposition parties were detained and leaders, including BJP MP, D. Arvind, BJP state president Dr K. Laxman and Congress leaders Ponnam Prabhakar, Shabbir Ali, Dr Geetha Reddy were put under house arrest to prevent them from taking part in the Million March. RTA JAC convener, E. Ashwathama Reddy, was detained by the police at Himayatnagar.
By 5 pm, the police lifted the traffic diversions and allowed vehicular traffic to resume on the Tank Bund.
Hyderabad police commissioner, Anjani Kumar, said that despite the police denying them permission, RTC employees along with some frontal organisations of Maoists and allied organisations like the Progressive Democratic Student Union (PDSU), Radical Students Union (RSU) and Opposition political parties had attempted to enter Tank Bund.
In violation of orders, they gathered from different districts and tried to storm Tank Bund but were prevented by the police, he said.
“Five police officers were injured in stone-pelting by the RTC JAC and Maoist frontal organisations and some Opposition party members. The police had to then use lathi-charge and fire tear gas to disperse the gathering,” Kumar said.
