Police were injured in clashes with students Monday in Hyderabad over demands for a separate Telangana state, officials said. More than 10 security and media personnel were injured in the violence at the Osmania University in the capital of India's Andhra Pradesh state, senior police officer Mahesh Ladda told reporters.
The university is the centre of the movement campaigning for the new state and supporters want Hyderabad for its capital. "Students took out a rally and threw stones at policemen deployed on the campus. Twelve security personnel and some media personnel were injured in the protests," Ladda said.
Police dispersed the crowd with canes and tear-gas, but without injuries, according to a police source. Protests on campus on Sunday were also reported. Andhra Pradesh has seen weeks of violent protests by groups for and against the separation of the Telangana region from the rest of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Two students killed themselves in January in support of the creation of a new state.
In December the government appeared to give in to weeks of pro-independence protests by students and the regional Telangana Rashtriya Samiti party, agreeing to form a Telangana state. New Delhi quickly put the project on hold, however, as violent protests broke out in the other parts of Andhra Pradesh, and formed a committee to evaluate the proposal more carefully and conduct consultations.
In protest at this perceived delay, 11 pro-Telangana regional legislators resigned on Sunday. Campaigners have claimed that Telangana, made up of the 10 northern districts of Andhra Pradesh, suffers economically from supporting the state's other two regions. The area of the would-be separate state includes the current state capital Hyderabad, one of India's major information technology and pharmaceutical hubs.