Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A campus that turned a fortress:OU

HYDERABAD: For the past 10 days Osmania University (OU) campus was buzzing with activity as students  and activists spearheaded the Telangana agitation, but 


on Wednesday it wore a deserted look. With police adopting strong-arm tactics, from threats of arrest to coercion, the sylvan OU campus virtually became a police camp. 





Since Tuesday night, students, who were still staying in hostels, started leaving as police ‘hinted’ to them to either vacate or else they would be arrested. Police were fortifying the campus in view of the peace rally which was planned before Wednesday’s late night political developments. 



By 10 am, police blocked all entry points into the campus, including pathways, and arrested 60 students who were staging a protest in front of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (Arts College). 


All hostels were locked throughout the day. Police did not allow non-boarders and even some university staff to enter the premises. 


To create fear among the student fraternity, which has been spearheading the Telangana struggle, police allegedly resorted to methods like offering money to people to get whereabouts of JAC members and student leaders. 


At about 4 pm, a police team led by a senior city police officer went to Manikeswar Nagar and warned elderly persons not to allow youngsters out of the houses. Police officers reportedly even offered local people money for giving information on student leaders staying in that area or for making them vacate the houses. 


“One police officer offered me Rs 300 for information about student leaders staying in Manikeswar Nagar and said that he will pay another Rs 300 if we make the students vacate the houses,” Kiran (name changed), a Manikeswar Nagar resident, said. 


In their bid to exercise control over the campus, police did not even allow OU professors to enter their chambers. When linguistics Professor Mohammed Ansari along with a professor of mechanical engineering department Laxminarayana wanted to go to his chamber at OU Arts College, police personnel intercepted them and sent them away. 


“I do not know why we are not allowed to walk freely in our own university. We stay on the campus and they are not even letting us go out to bring necessary items home,” Prof Ansari said. According to Prof Laxminarayana, the families of faculty were fearing for their lives even as police conducted flag marches. 


“With paramilitary forces brandishing their AK47s on every street of the campus, my children were saying that it was beginning to look like Kashmir,” he added. So far, police arrested eight JAC activists. Cases were registered against about 50 OU students under various sections of IPC, including attempt to murder, SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for damage of property and assaulting constables in mufti. 


By Wednesday evening, police ensured the the big tent under which JAC was holding a dharna was removed. By 8 pm, about 1000 police personnel and a handful of media personnel were the only people on the campus.

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