‘We could hear gunshots’: Telangana brings back 72 students and civilians stranded due to violence in Manipur

Telangana brought back 72 students and civilians caught up in the violence in Manipur on Monday. The students, who were evacuated on an IndiGo flight on Monday night, said the tense situation began to affect them mentally and many suffered from panic attacks.

“We could hear gunshots at night,” said Spoorthi, who is a mechanical engineering student at NIT Manipur located in Langol, who was also affected by the violence.

The student thanked BRS MLC K Kavitha, who took action after hearing about the plight of the students. “All the Telugu students, including those from Andhra Pradesh, were brought back free of charge on an Indigo flight,” he said.

Spoorthi told News18 that the situation started to become tense after May 3. “At first, we thought it was just a fight between two towns and that it would calm down. However, the villages were burned down and that’s when we started to worry,” he said, adding that extensive security was provided on campus.

“There were CRPF troops on campus and we had all the basic necessities, but when the riots continued, we had to think about going home,” he said.

The stranded students were brought back on a direct flight from Imphal to Hyderabad. Another 34 reached the city via Kolkata. Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari and DGP Anjani Kumar formed a special task force with a 24-hour control room at the DGP office.

Students from NIT, IIIT, JIMS and Manipur Agricultural University were traveling on the flights. The passengers also included a one-month-old baby and the parents, who hail from Bhainsa town in Nirmal district.

The flight carrying 72 students arrived at Shamshabad airport from Imphal on Monday night. The remaining 130 students arrived in Hyderabad last night and earlier in the morning. More students will reach Hyderabad on different flights passing through Raipur, Patna and Bhubaneswar.

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