Twenty-four people, including eight policemen, were on Friday injured in violence that broke out during a tour of Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan to Telangana, following which he was taken into preventive custody, forcing him to abandon his visit.
Nine people were injured when the police fired to quell protesters while seven others were injured in clashes, the police said. Eight policemen were also hurt in the violence that broke out in protest against his yatra.
Jaganmohan, son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, had undertaken his Odarpu Yatra to console people who had allegedly committed suicide or died after hearing his father’s death in a helicopter crash last year, despite the party leadership asking him not to do so.
He was detained at the Vangipalli railway station in the wake of violence in Mahbubabad town in Warangal district, the hotbed of separate Telangana agitation, in protest against his tour, the police said. He was released later after which he returned here.
Though initially it was reported that one person was killed in the violence, DGP R.R. Girish Kumar said later that the youth had only fallen unconscious. “It was presumed initially that he died but he had actually become unconscious,” he told reporters. An inquiry has been ordered into the Mahbubabad violence, the DGP said.
A defiant Jaganmohan, however, vowed to undertake his tour to console over 70 families at an opportune time. “The leaders who are blocking my personal tour should ponder if it was fair to indulge in such nefarious politics,” an angry Jaganmohan, who is opposed to creation of a separate Telangana, said.
Holding Jaganmohan responsible today’s violence in Warangal district, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) called for a bandh in the region on Saturday. Jaganmohan, 37, a first-time MP from Kadapa, had on Friday morning embarked on his seven-day trip by a train from Secunderabad.
There were mild protests en route from pro-Telangana agitators but the Mahbubabad railway station turned out to be the main battle ground where the pro and anti-Jagan groups clashed.
The pro-Telangana agitators vandalised the Mahbubabad railway station and hurled stones at Congress MLA Konda Surekha and local MLA Kavita when they were sitting inside the waiting room to receive Jaganmohan. Kavita suffered an injury in the stone-pelting while Surekha escaped unhurt. —PTI