Old Hyderabad: Violence strands students

[1]

Violence in the communally-sensitive old city area adversely affected schools, colleges and business establishments here on Friday.

Post noon, when the situation was relatively calm and shops were allowed to open, parents were seen rushing to educational institutions to bring their children safely back home.

“When the police had anticipated violence and deployed forces in the area, educational institutions must not have been allowed to open on Friday,” said a hassled parent of a girl who had gone to Nizamia College for her practical examinations.

“My daughter is stuck inside; I am neither being allowed to go in nor is she allowed to come out. I rushed here after I came to know of the violence,” he said.

Students of Agrawal Public School in Ghansi Bazar were stranded too.

Businessmen complained that because of a series of such incidents, people are avoiding the old city area, thus affecting their livelihood. They had to pull down shutters on the orders of the cops and the threat of rampaging mobs.

Meanwhile, Muslims who wanted to return home after the prayers had to seek shelter in the Macca Masjid for hours.

In the evening, as an uneasy calm prevailed in the old city, it bore the telltale signs of an unrest — smell of the tear gas the police had to use to control clashing mobs and the debris that was littered on the streets.