Pro-Telangana students launch hunger strike

HYDERABAD: Defying police, about 500 students of Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) today started a "mass indefinite hunger strike" in front of Arts College at Osmania University here in support of the statehood to the region.Over 700 pro-Telangana supporters, including students, were taken into preventive custody in Telangana districts when they tried to organise a 'rasta roko' and sit-ins to express solidarity with the fasting students, police said.Tension prevailed at Osmania University (OU) campus, nerve centre of the Telangana stir, when a group of students, led by student JAC leader Vangapathi Sreenu, tried to take out a motorcycle rally from the Arts College to Raj Bhavan.The police deployed at OU prevented them from taking out the rally. They used tear-gas shells to disperse a group of stone-pelting students. Later, 50 students were taken into custody for defying prohibitory orders.Telangana Political JAC Convenor M Kodandaram and some other leaders somehow managed to reach the fast venue. But other political leaders were arrested at the main gate while trying to enter the university campus.Police and central paramilitary forces have sealed all the routes leading towards the OU campus. Police Commissioner A K Khan said no permission was given for the hunger strike.Prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more people are already in force in the state capital.Khan called on Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy in the evening and briefed him about the situation in OU.