Incensed pro-Telangana activists on Thursday set fire to a tent and chairs belonging to the police department on the Tank Bund in protest against the lathi-charge on the Osmania University students earlier in the day.
The pro-Telangana activists managed to lay their hands on a tarpaulin tent set up by the police personnel to shelter them from the harsh sun and some plastic chairs used by the cops.
The activists, whose strength is now estimated to be around 25,000, set the ‘spoils of war’ on fire to protest against the earlier lathi-charge on the OU students.
Even as the tent and chairs were being burnt, the police personnel deployed at the Tank Bund remained mute spectator, apprehensive perhaps that any action on their part to save their property would trigger off a confrontation and perhaps vitiate the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, an outdoor broadcasting van, known as an OB Van, was damaged by the incensed mobs. Activists climbed onto the van and damaged the antenna used to upload footage to the satellites and also shattered the van’s glasses.