For the third time in a fortnight, Osmania University witnessed seesaw battles between the police and students when the latter were stopped from taking out a rally to participate in the Telangana March on Sunday.
Two students suffered injuries as pitched battles were fought with the police and paramilitary forces stationed at the NCC gate, which continued till late in the evening. Trouble broke out when a group of students took out a motorcycle rally from Arts College in the morning.
On reaching the NCC gate, gun-toting policemen refused to allow them to leave the campus leading to stone-pelting and retaliatory lobbing of teargas shells. Raising slogans, a few students also tried to pull down the barricades.
Irate students caught hold of a person and thrashed him at the engineering college accusing him of being a police informer. He was let off after clarifying that he was a student and was preparing for SI recruitment exam. Students regrouped in front of the college and pelted stones at the police. They even picked up the teargas shells lobbed by the police and hurled them back. While some students defused the shells by putting loose soil, others wrapped them with a plastic cover after pouring water. Policemen repeatedly asked students to return to their respective hostel rooms but the latter did not budge and continued to hurl stones. Police sealed all the roads connecting the campus with barricades to prevent entry of other vehicles.
