Police foil 'beef fest' bid at Osmania University; organisers claim success

Hyderabad: Police on Thursday said they foiled a student group's attempt to hold a 'beef festival' on the Osmania University (OU) campus here even as organisers claimed that students "celebrated" the event inside their hostel rooms.

In order to stop the 'festival' from taking place, police also detained some of its key organisers and arrested BJP MLA from Goshamahal here, T Raja Singh, who was in the forefront opposing the event.

A 'curfew-like' situation prevailed at the university with heavy police security being deployed to prevent any untoward incident in view of a student group's plan to hold a 'beef festival' at the university. There was a mild tension in and around the OU as police rounded up over 100 persons who came in different groups and tried to barge into the campus either opposing or supporting the festival.

A students' group had declared that it would hold a 'beef festival' on the campus today, coinciding with the World Human Rights Day, while another group also announced its plan to organise a 'pork festival' the same day, which had raised the possibility of confrontation.

Talking to PTI, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Zone), A Ravinder said "we successfully stopped them from organising the festival on the campus. We have taken a few people into custody. They will be released soon."

When contacted, Shankar, one of the organisers, said all the students "celebrated" the festival in their hostel rooms as the police did not allow them to come out. "You (media) should tell whether the event was successfully held or not," Shankar said.

Some pictures showing the students eating beef were circulated in social media but it was not immediately known whether they consumed beef today.

"Last night, we detained eight key members of the group which announced the beef festival today. As per the court order, decided not to allow any festival on the Osmania University campus," a police official said.