By IANS
Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh’s Medak district shut down Thursday on a call from the ruling Congress party to protest the attack on a state minister by activists of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), who are agitating for a separate state.
Buses of the state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) went off the roads and shops and business establishments remained closed as Congress workers enforced the strike.
TRS activists had Wednesday allegedly attacked minister Mohammed Fareeduddin during a protest in the district headquarters Sangareddy against Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s statement that it was impossible to create a separate Telangana state before 2009.
TRS and Congress workers clashed Wednesday at a function attended by the minister, and the police used force to disperse them. Later, TRS workers threw stones at the minister’s convoy.
On Thursday, shouting slogans against the TRS, Congress activists took to the streets in Sangareddy and other places and did not allow buses to ply.
Following the Congress’ protest, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao Thursday cancelled his scheduled visit to Sangareddy.
TRS workers also surrounded two ministers in Mahabubnagar and Ranga Reddy district. For the last few days, party activists have been blocking convoys of ministers in Telangana region to pressure them to come out in support of a separate state.
TRS is trying to intensify the Telangana movement but the party chief has warned its activists against resorting to violence. The party has also been running a campaign against the proposal to constitute the second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) that is supposed to look into the demands for separate states, including Telangana.
TRS, which is spearheading the movement for a separate Telangana, is opposing the second SRC on the ground that this would delay the process of creating the state.
More than 300 people were killed during the Telangana movement in 1969. The demand for separate statehood to the backward region, comprising Hyderabad and nine other districts, is over four decades old.