File photo. TJAC chairman, professor M. Kodandaram, was also put under house arrest by the police. Photo: AFP
Hyderabad: Several activists of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), left parties and other mass organizations were taken into preventive custody by the Hyderabad police on Saturday when they tried to participate in the “million march movement” commemoration day at Tank Bund.
TJAC chairman, professor M. Kodandaram, was also put under house arrest by the police.
Kodandaram said that many activists from outside Hyderabad were also picked up by the police and prevented from entering the city. “From 9 March itself the police began the same, and about 1,500 people have been taken into custody so far. The cops had come near my house on Friday itself and put up barricades. And today they are not allowing me to leave,” he said.
The “million march movement” was organised on 10 March 2011 by the TJAC, which was a platform for all pro-Telangana political parties and other organizations to come together, and agitate for the state’s formation through various protests, which had paralysed the city’s functioning back then. This particular episode however was marked by violence when protesting students vandalised bronze statues of Andhra personalities on the Tank Bund road in Hyderabad.
“They applied for permission to conduct the event and it was denied. But even then they gave a call to come,” said central zone deputy commissioner of police Joel Davis. He added that 175 persons had been taken into preventive custody till Saturday evening.
Earlier in the day, the central zone police, under which the Tank Bund areas falls, had cordoned off the road for even the traffic. It was opened later at about 5pm, mentioned Davis.
Kodandaram, however, stated that the state police had picked up many more activists in different areas near Hyderabad while they tried to enter the city for the event. The call for the “million march movement” commemoration was given by the TJAC and left parties.
Ever since Telangana’s formation, the TJAC and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have been at loggerheads, with the former censuring the TRS for not fulfilling its poll promises.
This is also not the first time since Telangana’s creation that the TJAC has been stopped from conducting an event or protest. Last year in February, a similar situation took place when the TJAC and Osmania University Unemployed Students Joint Action Committee gave a call to protest against unemployment in the state. Several people had also been taken into preventive custody by the police then too.
