Clashes between the police and students of Osmania University continued at the campus through the day on Sunday, leading to a near curfew situation in the surrounding areas of Vidyanagar, DD Colony, Nallakunta, Shivam and Manikeshwari Nagar. These areas resembled war zones, with CRPF, RPF and state police department personnel deployed in full force along with scores of Vajra and anti-riot vehicles at the entry and exit points of the campus, NCC gate and towards Tarnaka.
The surroundings reverberated with the sound of heavy police firing and raising of slogans by students. The cops were forced to fire several rounds of tear-gas shells to disperse the students who tried to break the security cordon to take a rally to the Necklace Road venue of the T march.
T-supporters hurl stones from flyover
Sudden closure of a few flyovers after Telangana supporters hurled stones from the Telugu Talli flyover, as well as road closures due to dharnas, led to huge traffic jams in the city. Motorists and commuters remained caught in traffic for hours due to the sudden closure of certain routes.
Failure of traffic police to issue travel notices and advisories in advance in view of the T march, led to huge chaos on city roads.
However, cops indicated that the T march route had been kept secret and other routes were not expected to be affected due to the march, since it was a Sunday and traffic is generally low. Despite this, huge traffic jams around Punjagutta, Lakdi-ka-pul, Khairatabad, Masab Tank and routes touching the tank bund road were seen around 3 pm. Following violence erupting at Telugu Talli flyover, the Telugu Talli flyover and the Punjagutta flyover were closed for a good part of the evening.