HYDERABAD: Panic reigned in some areas of the city with mobs of youngsters going berserk damaging public and private property and attacking police and civilian vehicles after Tuesday midnight coinciding with Shab-e-Meraj, popularly known as `jagneki raat.'

The violent crowds, some moving on foot and a majority driving their vehicles dangerously, took the police off guard and went on a rampage for nearly three hours. With few policemen on the roads to prevent them, the groups had a field day at Tank Bund, Necklace Road, Secretariat and Khairatabad.

Forces rushed

It was only when the police higher-ups rushed additional forces and caught some 30 youngsters creating trouble and drove away others, the situation came under control. "We do not think they belong to a particular party or organisation. We are yet to ascertain what drove them to resort to such violence," Central Zone DCP Madhusudhan Reddy said. Groups of youngsters started assembling at Tank Bund and Necklace Road on Tuesday night. By midnight, the crowd swelled. Mischief-mongers among them started raising slogans.

The groups literally took over parts of the stretch from the Telugu Talli statue to the middle of the Tank Bund scaring away passersby. Suddenly, unidentified youngsters began breaking tiles on the pavement of Tank Bund and hurling the fragments on nearby buildings. One group threw stones at a police jeep breaking its windscreens and resulting in minor injuries to a policeman near Tank Bund. Another gang intercepted a private DCM van near Khairatabad junction and attacked its driver.

As the policemen started chasing the youngsters on Tank Bund, the latter headed towards the Secretariat and Khairatabad throwing away steel barricades kept by the traffic police on the roads. They also damaged signboards and advertisement hoardings installed by the MCH and uprooted saplings planted on the roadside.

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