Police restore shaky order to restive Indian state after partition idea floated

HYDERABAD, India: Most trains and buses started running again yesterday and businesses and schools reopened in Andhra Pradesh following three days of violent protests against the government's plan to split up the southern Indian state.

Thousands marched in ports and towns of southern Andhra Pradesh to protest plans to carve out a new state, as a backlash grew against demands for statehood in a challenge for the Congress party-led government.

Police, hoping to maintain the fragile calm, also arrested a ruling party lawmaker who was preparing to begin a high-profile hunger strike to protest the splitting of the state. But he was freed hours later.