Tension gripped Hyderabad all through the day as police lobbed teargas shells and used force to foil the Telangana march, as thousands of people tried to converge at the Necklace Road.
Sporadic violence was witnessed as the agitators clashed with police at several places, including Osmania University campus and Khairatabad. Police put barricades and barbed wire fencing at several places in the city, and allowed people to reach the venue only through a single route. With the entry blocked at several places, agitators pelted stones and also set fire to a few media and police vehicles.
Khairatabad, Telugu Thalli Flyover and the State Secretariat were the flash points where hundreds of protesters tried to remove the barricades and make their way to the venue. At Osmania University, students and police were engaged in a pitched battle, after the latter refused permission to proceed to Necklace Road.
After denying permission for the T-JAC protest for days, the State Government finally agreed to allow the March on Sunday evening for four hours.
Though this ended a thaw ahead of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the leaders of T-JAC (Telangana Joint Action Committee), alleged that the police have resorted to violence.
They also alleged that the police have stopped trains, buses and trucks to stop Telangana activists from the region from attending the protest march.