Colleges turned out to be the focal point of students at different places in the city leading to a standoff with the police. The Osmania University campus saw a tug of war between slogan-shouting students and the police that exercised restraint on orders from above in view of the strictures of the high court. The police did not enter the campus but stopped marching students just outside by barricading the road.
Students tried all tactics, from trying to remove the barbed wire to arguing and threatening the police, then offering them flowers and later offering bribes by waving currency notes. When this did not work they sat on the road raising slogans against the police and in support of Telangana.
Some of them sang songs and danced to the beating of drums. In at least two places in Hyderabad, the police used lathis to disperse unruly crowd. In Warangal and Sangareddy in Medak district, protesters clashed with the police.
The self-immolation attempt of Yadaiah had reverberations across the region with students attacking Congress offices in Warangal, Nalgonda and Medak and holding rasta rokos.
As the day ended without any major clash, city police commissioner A K Khan expressed satisfaction at the restraint shown by the students. He apologised to citizens for inconveniencing them and said the restrictions would be lifted gradually.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Saturday expressed shock over the self-immolation bid by a 20-year-old youth on the Osmania University campus in support of separate Telangana state demand. “I once again appeal to the students and the youth not to resort to such acts. Please observe restraint,” the chief minister said.
Home Minister P Sabita Reddy visited the youth, Yadaiah, who was undergoing treatment with 85 per cent burns at the DRDL-Apollo Hospital. Some political activists and lawyers who assembled at the hospital tried to block the home minister and raised slogans against her. But the minister was escorted into the hospital amidst tight security.
Meanwhile, the Osmania University authorities postponed post-graduate examinations which were scheduled on February 22-23.