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Protests continue for separate Telangana

December 26, 2009 17:59 IST

Protests in support of a separate Telangana state continued on Saturday in different districts of Telangana region.

The fresh protests that broke out soon after Centre's December 23 statement on Telangana issue continued in Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Adilabad and Medak with a series of hunger strikes, rallies, demonstrations and road blockades.

President Pratibha Patil, who was to arrive in Hyderabad on Monday, has been advised to postpone the trip in view of the current situation.

A group of pro-Telagana agitators in Andhra Pradesh along led by TRS leader Inayat Ali Baqueri stopped the shooting of a film of NTR Junior at Khursheed Jah Deodhi in old city of Hyderabad. The agitators allegedly also forced the director and other crewmembers of the film to raise slogans of 'Jai Telangana', sources said.

No casualties were reported.

The fast-unto-death launched by students at the Osmania University campus and at Kakatiya University in Warangal district entered the third day on Saturday.

Several people and representatives of various organisations called on the fasting students expressing their solidarity.

Raising 'Jai Telangana' slogans, hundreds of students and others held demonstrations and road blockades and carried out a mock funeral procession of Telugu Desam Party leaders and burnt their effigies in Warangal city and Nalgonda and Adilabad districts.

"The students and other activists were detained for some time and later released," a senior police officer said over phone from Warangal.

Telangana activists set fire to the office of Telugu Desam Party in the temple town of Vemulawada in Karimnagar district this morning causing damages to furniture and banners, police sources said.

The protesters also held a rail roko at Peddapalli division headquarters and stopped the Telangana Express.

The activists also attacked the Ellampalli irrigation project office and burnt the furniture and generator room at Vemnoor village in Ramagundam mandal, Godavarikhani Deputy Superintendent of Police Habeeb Khan said.

Students and others also staged dharna and road blockade in different parts of Karimnagar district resulting in traffic snarls.

In Sangareddy, pro-Telangana activists held road blockades, demonstrations and burnt effigies of United Progressive Alliance leaders and state ministers in different parts of Medak district. In many villages, people have stopped paying electricity bills till separate Telangana state was formed.

Meanwhile, the TDP observed a bandh in Mahabubnagar district condemning the attack on its leaders including Politburo member Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who was roughed up by students and pro-Telangana activists at the Osmania University campus here on Thursday.

With inputs from Mohammed Siddique in Hyderabad

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