Toll booths set ablaze before proposed T March

Ahead of the proposed 'Telangana March', a group of pro-Telangana activists today allegedly set ablaze two toll plaza booths on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) near Gachibowli in Hyderabad, even as students pelted stones at police on Osmania University (OU) campus again.

Around 25 activists belonging to the Telangana United Forum reached ORR at around 4.50 am and threatened staff to come out of the toll booths run by P K Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd, and allegedly ransacked the booths before setting two of the booths ablaze, besides causing minor damages to six other booths, before fleeing the scene, the police said. Some staff members somehow had a lucky escape as petrol which was poured by the activists on booths also fell on them, a police officer said. Narsingi police arrested 11 of the activists who were booked under relevant sections of the IPC, produced before a court this evening and sent to judicial remand, they said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who took the incident seriously, called up the In-Charge DGP V Dinesh Reddy and directed him arrest those responsible at the earliest. Also, when pro-Telangana students pelted stones on police personnel once again at the Osmania University campus, they retaliated by firing tear-gas shells.