Telangana bandh largely peaceful barring stray incidents

The bandh observed in districts of Telangana region to protest the firing on those supporting the separate statehood issue in Mahbubabad town passed off peacefully today, barring stray incidents of damage to public and private properties, police said.

Apart from resorting to road blockades and burning buses, pro- Telangana activists held dharnas, took out rallies and burnt effigies of Congress MP Jaganmohan Reddy, Parkal MLA Konda Surekha and her MLC husband K Murali at Osmania University campus and in Nizamabad district, they said.

Holding the Kadapa MP responsible for yesterday's violence at Mahbubabad railway station in Warangal district in which nine pro-Telangana activists suffered injuries after gunmen of Congress legislators allegedly fired on them, the Telangana Joint Action Committee had given a bandh call in the region today.

Elsewhere in Rayalaseema region, denouncing the preventive arrest of Jaganmohan, his followers and Congress workers also observed bandh in Anantapur and Chittoor district, though it hardly had any impact on normal life.

Strongly condemning the Mahbubabad incident, pro-Telangana agitators enforced bandh in Warangal, Medak, Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Nizamabad districts even as police took 897 persons into preventive custody and also arrested five persons after registering 17 cases under various IPC sections, police said.