The Congress government headed by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is going all out to thwart the attempts of the Telangana activists to hold “Sadak Bandh” (highway blockade) on February 24 on Hyderabad-Bangalore national highway.

Already, thousands of leaders belonging to Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Telangana Joint Action Committee have been taken into preventive custody in the name of “bind-over” so that they would not lead the highway blockade. Attempts are being made to take top leaders including TRS legislators and TJAC leaders into preventive custody a day before the programme. The cops are keeping an eye on the leaders who are mobilizing crowds on to the streets to participate in the bandh programme.

Naturally, the TRS leaders are angry. “Why is the government obstructing us, when we want to do a peaceful demonstration? Have we swindled crores of rupees or resorted to any scandal? We have made elaborate arrangements for the Sadak Bandh. The police are only instigating the peaceful people and we are not responsible if there are any violent incidents on this occasion,” TRS legislator T Harish Rao said.