MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: Protesters demanding separate statehood clashed with police in parts of western Maharashtra state and India’s IT hub Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Reports of sporadic violence, arson and rioting were reported from several districts of Vidarbha. The police have arrested at least 200 protesters.
Meanwhile, police used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to quell hundreds of stone-throwing protesters in southern Andhra Pradesh state on Wednesday amid anger over delays in creating a new state in the region. Some 16 people were injured in the violence.
The Separate Vidarbha Action Committee (SVAC) called a total shutdown in 11 districts of Maharashtra since Wednesday morning to press demands for the Vidarbah region to delink from Maharashtra and form a separate state. All opposition parties, with the exception of Hindu hard-line parties Shiv Sena and Navnirman Sena, backed the shutdown.
Reports of road and rail blockade, stone throwing and arson were reported from many districts. Schools, colleges and businesses remained. In view of anticipated violence, the police authorities in all the districts of Vidarbha had beefed up security.
In Nagpur, activists blocked the railway tracks and disrupted train traffic for more than an hour. Police used mild force to disperse the protesters and restore rail traffic. In Chandrapur, four youths climbed on a tower in Kothari locality and raised slogans demanding separate Vidarbha state. In Amravati, protesters stopped the Vidarbha Express bound for Delhi in the morning. The train was allowed to proceed after 30 minutes following police intervention.
In December, India’s federal government had promised to carve out a new state called Telangana in the northern part of Andhra Pradesh after a senior local politician went on a hunger strike to press the demand. But weeks later the government appeared to put the plan on hold and said more consultations were needed before the new state was formed.
Since then sporadic angry protests have erupted in the state.
Wednesday’s violence started when groups of university students in state capital Hyderabad tried to march through the streets with the body of a student who had allegedly committed suicide to demand the creation of the new state, B. Prasad Rao, the city’s top police official said.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and used bamboo batons to beat back the angry students, who had been pelting the security forces with stones, Rao said. At least 10 police and six students were injured in the clashes.
In several northern parts of the state, traffic was halted and schools and businesses were shut in response to a strike called by student groups in support of a new Telangana state.
— With input from agencies
