The police on Thursday took 104 agitators into preventive custody following the 12-hour Rail Roko call given by the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee and Osmania University Joint Action Committee pressing for introduction of Bill in the Parliament for separate Telangana State.
City Police Commissioner AK Khan stated among those arrested included senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bandaru Dattatreya, Karunakar of Telangana Lecturers Forum, Telangana Advocates and others. Mr Khan said that the police had made elaborate Law and Order arrangements for maintenance of peace in twin cities particularly at Secunderabad, Nampally and Kachiguda Railway stations. The city’s top cop said the city police along with Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force patrolled railway stations and tracks to prevent uprooting of fish plates and railway tracks by Telangana leaders. He said there was no major incident was reported as part of Rail Roko agitation and the law and order situation in twin cities was well under control. Meanwhile, the South Central Railway cancelled 31 Express Trains, 116 Passenger/MMTs Trains, rescheduled 23 Express Trains and diverted 23 trains passing through Telangana region and terminated 20 long distances trains outside the Telangana region. In order to avoid the inconvenience to the Railway commuters, the State Road Transport Corporation also ran 300 additional special buses from Secunderabad, Nampally, Railway Stations besides from various important towns from where the trains are obstructed or terminated by the agitators.