Hyderabad:
Hundreds of activists and politicians involved with a demonstration demanding a new state of Telangana were arrested today in and around Hyderabad. The city turned into a fortress to keep the march from reaching the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. K Chandrasekhar Rao, leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the party fronting the movement, has called for a bandh in the Talangana region tomorrow.
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10,000 policemen were positioned in Hyderabad, many of them near the state Assembly building.
The Congress government headed by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had refused permission for the demonstration.
The slogan for today's demonstration was "Chalo Assembly," urging supporters to march to the state legislature.
Roads near the Assembly in central Hyderabad were blocked off; schools and colleges were closed; bus and train services were scaled down.
The students of Osmania University, where pro-Telangana sentiment runs high, were stopped from leaving campus to join the march.
Despite the many rings of security, some activists manged to reach within 50 yards of the Assembly.
Two members of the TRS climbed to the top of a building within the Assembly's premises and placed a black flag there. They stayed there for an hour; marshalls or guards at the Assembly finally brought them down an hour later.
The Assembly held two short sessions before it was adjourned for the day.
In December 2009, the central government had announced a decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, sanctioning statehood for Telangana.
But a massive backlash from the other two regions of Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema both that decision were put on hold just days later. Telangana comprises 10 districts, including Hyderabad.
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