The preventive arrests of several Telangana Joint Action Committee leaders, activists of various student and youth organisations by the police in the district to stop them from participating in the ‘Chalo Hyderabad’ rally on Wednesday evoked widespread condemnation from the Left parties and civil liberties organisations.
The TJAC district convenor Papa Rao was taken into preventive custody by the One-Town police on Tuesday night and let off late on Wednesday afternoon, sources said.
The PDSU district president M. Suresh and PYL district secretary Srinivas and several others were detained near Rythu Bazar here in the morning while they were on their way to Hyderabad. They were let off a few hours later.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Mr. Papa Rao alleged that the TRS Government was trying to stifle the voice of students and unemployed youths, who played a catalyst role in achieving separate Telangana.
The TRS regime is acting in a dictatorial manner to crush democratic protests by unemployed youth in pursuit of their demand for jobs as promised by the persons at the helm of affairs, he charged. The police kept me in their custody for more than 12 hours without heeding to my request to allow me to attend the patients at my hospital, he alleged.
In a separate statement, Civil Liberties Committee district president K. Ravi termed the arrest of TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram ‘undemocratic’.
‘Emergency-like rule’
Meanwhile, CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram flayed the arrest of Mr. Kodandaram from his residence. Speaking to newsmen in Palair en route Kusumanchi as part of the party’s State-wide Mahajana Padayatra on Wednesday, Mr. Veerabhadram charged the TRS Government with imposing an ‘emergency-like’ rule on the State.
