Osmania campus put under lockdown
POLICE OUT TO FOIL STUDENTS’ ATTEMPTS TO HOLD BEEF FESTIVAL
Acurfew-like situation prevailed at the Osmania University campus in Hyderabad as police sealed the premises and took 16 students into preventive custody to foil their plans of holding “Beef Festival”.
Tension gripped the campus for the last few days after rival organisations of students had announced beef and pork festivals on the campus. The campus was turned into a police fortress as additional officers were deployed and barricades erected.
The city police also arrested the BJP MLA T. Raja Singh, who had planned a march to the campus to prevent the Beef Festival.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Chandrasekhar, who supervised the strict security arrangements, said the measures were taken to implement the court orders barring any food festival on the campus.
All exit and entry points to the campus were closed since Wednesday night and no outsiders were allowed to enter the area. Police teams searched the Kaveri and Narmada hostels and took 16 students into custody and lodged them in the Amberpet Police station.
Unknown assailants stoned a Road Transport Corporation bus just outside the campus damaging the glass panes. The Democratic Cultural Forum, comprising as many as 25 leftist and Dalit students’ organisations, planned to organise the Beef Festival yesterday, coinciding with International Human Rights Day. They said the festival was to assert their constitutional right to food of their choice.
As a counter, the Banjara Students Joint Action Committee called for a Pork Festival on the same day in the same campus.
On the other hand many Hindu organisations, supported by BJP MLA Raja Singh, had vowed to prevent the Beef Festival linking it to cows. They announced that they would observe Cow Worship programme.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Rambhupal Rao said Singh was arrested from his residence in Goshamahal area and shifted to Shah Inayat Gunj police station.
Talking to journalists, Singh alleged police had arrested him unlawfully. “My intention was to prevent Beef Festival and protect cows,” he said.