Several members of student organisations and other groups were taken into preventive custody on Friday at Osmania University in Hyderabad after they sought to obstruct the visit of ruling TRS leaders to the campus, with one of the protesters publicly threatening to immolate himself, police said.
A leader of TRS students' wing announced a plan to start a cricket tournament on Friday ahead of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's birthday in February. MLAs and other leaders were invited for the event.
However, members of some students' groups and other organisations had stated that they will obstruct the event, accusing the TRS government of not doing enough to provide jobs to the youth. One of the protesters openly carried a petrol bottle on the campus, claiming that he would immolate himself. The man along with 13 others were taken into preventive custody, police said.
In the past, the university was an important centre for the agitation to create a separate Telangana state.