Tension prevailed at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here on Saturday afternoon with rumours spreading about the health status of Telangana Rastra Samiti President K. Chandrasekhara Rao.
Mr. Rao, who has been fasting for the last few days seeking announcement of a separate state has been shifted to the hospital on Tuesday. However, NIMS Director D. Prasada Rao told mediapersons that the TRS chief was recovering though weak due to fasting.
He condemned reports of Mr. Rao going into a coma and said that saline was being given whenever required since the later was not accepting any food still. The TRS chief is able to talk though there are changes in blood and urine due to fasting.
Irate TRS activists and students agitating for Telangana continued to through the hospital at Punjagutta crossroads and resorted to pelting stones at a few shops and business establishments in the area as rumours spread about KCR’s health state. Some business establishments like Big Bazar and others were attacked and glass panes smashed.
The agitators shouted slogans demanding immediate "release" of Mr. Rao. They also surrounded CPI(M) State Secretary B.V. Raghavulu and Party MLA J. Ranga Reddy when they visited the hospital and urged them to support the agitation. Even as a crowd gathered, the police reached the place and moved them out.
The police also rushed additional forces to the hospital and put up special police pickets in all the vulnerable spots in the twin cities.
