CAMPUS

Hyderabad, July 5: Tear gas shells and rubber bullets were fired by police inside the Osmania University campus as a 48-hour bandh called by Telangana campaigners kicked in today.

Two rebel Telugu Desam MLAs trying to enter the university were arrested on the charge of provoking the students.

City buses, local trains, schools, cinemas and even Irani teashops in the 10 Telangana districts were shut down as statehood campaigners drove around in vans to ensure the bandh was observed.

A government spokesperson said almost 2,000 buses and 45 local trains were cancelled. Buses between the coastal districts and Hyderabad stopped plying in the afternoon for fear of attacks.

Petrol pumps closed in the morning after staying open all night to service people who rushed to fill up before the bandh. This morning, petrol was selling in black at Rs 100 a litre.

The All India Bank Officers’ Association said banking transactions worth Rs 20,000 crore would be affected during the two-day bandh as most of the 5,000 odd branches of all banks in the region stay closed.

V. Anil Kumar, the association general secretary, said the daily transactions of all banks in Telangana region were around Rs 10,000 crore a day.

An attack on the Jubilee Hills home of Union minister Jaipal Reddy, the seniormost Congress MP from Telangana and one of the few who has not resigned, was thwarted by the police.

However, the houses of elected representatives of the Congress and the Desam in Warangal were attacked. An effigy of Congress MP Sarvey Satyanarayana, who had refused to resign saying ‘I cannot let down party president Sonia Gandhi who had handpicked me for Parliament’, was also burnt.