Gouravelli project: Oustees, cops exchange blows

SIDDIPET: TRS workers beat up protesters on Siddipet-Hanamkonda road in Husnabad on Tuesday, resulting in the situation getting out of hand. The TRS workers used social media to mobilise more workers saying that they intended to organise a counter-protest to take the sting out of the agitation of the villagers. The to-be oustees who were furious with the TRS workers trying to incite them into a fight confronted them about why they were not supporting them at a time when they were seeking just compensation for their lands.

200 TRS workers descend on village 

Meanwhile, about 200 TRS activists who were at the Husnabad MLA V Satish Kumar’s camp office descended on them.  The villagers who were ready for a showdown clashed with them which soon led to a free-for-all and the people who gathered there watched the unfolding scene in horror mortified, not knowing if it would escalate into a major law and order problem. 

The police joined the crowd and dispersed the villagers, thrashing them with plastic pipes. The oustees resorted to a counter-attack in which the policemen also were injured. A woman from the village lost consciousness during the clash and collapsed. She was rushed to a hospital in an ambulance.

The villagers blamed the police for the ruckus created by the TRS workers and questioned them why they had allowed them while they were staging a protest peacefully on Siddipet-Hanamkonda road. They demanded an answer from the police about how they had allowed about 200 TRS wo-rkers to assemble at the MLA’s camp office. They alleged that the attack on them by TRS activists was premeditated. 

Commissioner Shweta Reddy visits Husnabad

Siddipet Police Commissioner Shweta Reddy who visited Husnabad admitted there were clashes between two groups in Husnabad. She denied police resorting to lathi-charge either on Monday or Tuesday. The police had exercised extreme restraint even when the villagers were beating them up and injuring them, the Police Commissioner added.