124 trains cancelled, Congress and TRS leaders have been arrested

HYDERABAD: Three day ‘rail roko’ agitation started today in Teangana region. Now several Congress and TRS leaders taken into preventive custody for their attempt to disrupt rail services during the three-day agitation, which begins on Saturday in Telangana region in support of the statehood demand.

TRS’s Medak MP Vijaya Shanti was detained near Lakadi-Ka-Pul station here, while Ponnam Prabhakar, Congress MP from Karimnagar, and former minister Jeevan Reddy were taken into preventive custody in Karimnagar district.

Another Congress MP, S Rajaiah, was taken into custody after he and scores of supporters squatted on railway tracks and staged a demonstration at Kazipet railway station in Warangal district.

Siddipet MLA Harish Rao (TRS) was detained near Akkanpet railway station, while TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son and MLA K T Rama Rao and daughter K Kavitha (who heads TRS’s cultural outfit Telangana Jagruti) were also taken into custody.

Scores of pro-Telangana protesters, who squatted on rail tracks, were detained in the region.

Shouting pro-Telangana slogans, the agitators squatted on railway tracks and staged demonstrations near railway stations in Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad and Khammam districts.

Passengers facing difficulty at the time of festival with South Central Railways cancelling 124 passenger trains and diverting and rescheduling others which pass through Telangana region.