A 21-year-old student set himself ablaze reportedly shouting ‘Jai Telangana' slogans in front of the Kakatiya University Arts College here on Saturday afternoon and succumbed to burns a few hours later.
According to witnesses, Lunavath Bhojya Naik, a second year MBA student in a private college, went behind the Arts College auditorium and doused himself with petrol. Later, he set himself on fire and came running onto the main road. Shocked students and passers-by tried in vain to douse the flames. When the police arrived, he was said to be shouting slogans before falling down.
Naik was rushed to the MGM Hospital where the doctors said he sustained ninety per cent burns. The scene at the hospital was heart-rending with the aged mother of the boy wailing and pleading for saving her son's life. Naik belonged to BR Thanda of Raghunathpally mandal.
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Hundreds of separate Telangana sympathisers gathered at the hospital raising high-pitched slogans. As the news spread, TRS leaders -- former MP B. Vinod Kumar, party convenor P. Sudarshan Reddy, MLAs D. Vinay Bhaskar and T. Rajaiah -- rushed to the hospital.
Expressing his anguish, Mr. Vinay Bhaskar appealed to the youth not to end their lives for the cause of separate Telangana, instead take active part in the movement.