Andhra Pradesh   

Violence breaks out in Hyderabad

Special Correspondent

Cartoon issue echo in old city; many hurt in stone-throwing

HYDERABAD: Tension gripped parts of the old city on Friday after violence broke out during a protest against the pictorial depiction of Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Enraged protestors rained stones on police teams and set fire to a police motorcycle.

At least a dozen persons were injured in the stone-throwing incidents, which forced the police to resort to repeated lathicharge and lobbing of teargas shells. Tension escalated in Mallepally, Mehdipatnam, Vijayanagar colony, Rethibowli and surrounding areas also. Windscreens of several city buses were broken. Traffic came to a grinding halt and shops downed shutters even as panic-stricken college and office-goers rushed back home. At Mehdipatnam, people gathered in large numbers and organised a demonstration. Though the situation was brought under control by evening, tension mounted again as workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party gathered near Charminar protesting against failure of the police to protect innocent people. By 8 p.m. there was a stalemate in the situation as BJP workers were unrelenting in calling off their protest. Heavy contingents of the police were being moved to the sensitive areas all over the city.

Chaos and panic

Trouble broke out around 1.25 p.m. when people emerged out of the Mecca Masjid after noon prayers. Trampling the Danish flag laid out at the mosque, they rushed towards Gulzar Houz area after breaking the tight police cordon.

Protestors fanned out into the lanes hurling stones, resulting in utter chaos and panic. A jewellery shop owner was injured in the stone pelting.

As the police tried to take control of the situation, protesters stoned several business establishments in Gulzar Houz and damaged vehicles. Two places of worship were also damaged. At Khilwath and Murgi Chowk, miscreants broke windscreens of three RTC buses injuring a driver, a woman conductor and a passenger.

At Golla Galli, stones were hurled at a place of worship. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters squatted in front of the mosque demanding that they be allowed to go out in procession. Heated arguments were witnessed between the Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and DCP, South Zone, Sandeep Shandilya, at Charminar when the latter accused Majlis corporator Mohd. Ghousuddin of fomenting trouble.

Owaisi's appeal

Additional Commissioner of Police Tejdeep Kaur Menon intervened and took the Hyderabad MP to the troubled areas where he appealed to the protesters not to resort to violence.

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