Two bike-borne persons have set on fire a private bus at Chilakalguda here on Monday morning even as police stepped up security at all vulnerable places following the call for bandh in Telangana by the Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee protesting damaging of Ambedkar statues in Andhra region.
The bus belonging to a private educational institution was parked on the stretch between Shiva point and Chilakalguda crossroads along with two other buses. Miscreants entered the bus, sprinkled petrol on seats, got down and fled on the bike after lighting a matchstick, the police said.
The driver and a help cleaning another bus told the police that they could not note down the bike’s number. No one claimed responsibility for burning the bus but police are suspecting that the bandh enforcers could be behind it.
An Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation bus and a private truck were set on fire at Ramanthapur and Tarnaka respectively the previous night soon after the OUSJAC announced the bandh call. Meanwhile, some persons vandalized the statue of Rajeev Gandhi in Chilakalguda area on Sunday though a group of Osmania University students owned up it maintaining that they resorted to it protesting desecration of Ambedkar statues.
The bandh call on Monday has shown little effect in the city as RTC buses and auto-rickshaws plied normally. Majority of the educational institutions were open.
