Telangana Congress leaders detained to foil state-wide protest

Hyderabad, June 22

Telangana Congress leaders were either placed under house arrest or taken into preventive custody across the state on Thursday in view of the planned protest by the opposition party to coincide with culmination of the decennial state formation celebrations by the state government.

Police placed top Congress leaders under house arrest to prevent them from participating in planned protests.

The 21-day-long celebrations are coming to an end on Thursday. The Congress party has dubbed the occasion 'Dashabdi Dhaga' (a decade of cheating) and called for protests across the state.

Congress leaders in districts were taken into preventive custody or placed under house arrest. Senior leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir was placed under house arrest in Hyderabad.

On the last day of the celebrations, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is set to inaugurate Telangana Martyrs' Memorial 'Amara Deepam' which has come up in front of the state Secretariat on the banks of Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad.

The Congress party condemned the house arrests. It termed the arrests of party leaders and activists protesting peacefully as the murder of democracy and demanded the Director General of Police to unconditionally release them.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) A. Revanth Reddy termed the arrest of Congress leaders as undemocratic. He said in the name of state formation day celebrations, the ruling party was running a campaign by spending public money. He alleged that KCR did not fulfill a single promise made to people.

He alleged that Chief Minister KCR extended no help to the families of the martyrs who laid down their lives for Telangana. He said that the KCR family undermined the aspirations of the martyrs and looted the state of Telangana as its own fiefdom. The Congress Party will continue to fight on behalf of the people of Telangana until their exploitation is stopped and the aspirations of the immortals are fulfilled, reads a tweet from official handle of TPCC.

The Congress had asked its supporters to burn effigies representing CM KCR, likening him to Dashanana Ravanasura with 10 heads, each symbolising a broken election promise.

Revanth Reddy had said that each head of KCR will depict failed promises such as the KG-to-PG free education scheme, fee reimbursement, unemployment allowance, employment for every household, 2BHK housing, 3 acres for Dalits, podu land pattas, loan waiver, employment, 12 per cent reservation for minorities, and 12 per cent reservation for STs. He also alleged that the BRS government failed to honour Telangana martyrs.