By IANS,
Hyderabad : Police in different parts of Telangana Sunday prevented hundreds of students from proceeding towards Hyderabad to attend a meeting at Osmania University to demand statehood to the region.
Though the Andhra Pradesh High Court Saturday allowed the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Osmania University students to hold its meeting at the campus with certain conditions, police stopped vehicles carrying students in various districts.
JAC leaders alleged that the police were violating court order by arresting students and using repressive measures to foil the meeting titled “vidyarthi grajna” (students’ roar) scheduled to be held Sunday evening.
In Warangal, police stopped vehicles carrying students of Kakatiya University to Hyderabad on the ground that the vehicles had no permission to ply.
There was tension in Medak district as students who were prevented by police squatted on the road as a mark of protest.
OU student leaders threatened to file contempt of court case against the government for not allowing them to hold the meeting despite the court orders.
Massive security arrangements have been made at OU campus with security personnel, including paramilitary forces, deployed in large numbers in and around the campus. The students staged a protest when police officers insisted that the participants produce their student identity cards.
The high court had Saturday directed police to allow JAC to hold the meeting. The court barred political leaders and Maoists from addressing the meeting. The JAC had invited leaders of various political parties and some Maoist sympathisers.
The all-party JAC comprising the ruling Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and others has backed the students’ meeting.