2 min readHyderabadUpdated: Jun 30, 2026 01:19 AM IST
Two days after a school principal, Aamir Khan, was assaulted by BJP workers for allowing Urdu to be taught in a school in Armoor, Nizamabad district, Telangana Police on Monday took the party’s Armoor town president, M Balu, into custody. His arrest was recorded late Monday night.
Balu, however, got conditional bail from a local court.
Balu and other BJP workers had allegedly manhandled Khan, an English teacher and principal of Bharat Chandra High School, because a woman teacher at the same school taught Urdu instead of Hindi for “two days”. The alleged assault occurred on June 27.
Khan, who is now unavailable for comment, had earlier told The Indian Express that Urdu was taught in the school “only for two days”, at the insistence of a section of parents. Khan had explained that the management stopped teaching the language, which is a second language in Telangana, soon after another section of parents objected to it.
“However, the issue was escalated by the BJP leadership,” Khan had said.
When contacted, Balu had told The Indian Express that the school was teaching kalima and namaz to students “under the garb of teaching Urdu”. When enquired, Khan had justified the teaching of Urdu by saying “it is the second language in the state”, Balu had said.
The Telangana Police had booked two cases — one against Khan and the school correspondent, Mallaiah, for “promoting enmity between communities”, and the other against Balu and others for allegedly assaulting Khan. Khan was booked based on a complaint by the Armoor tehsildar, who accused the school management, including Khan, of teaching the language without taking permission. Balu was booked based on the complaint filed by Khan.
The BJP called for a bandh in Armoor Monday. The bandh remained total, though no untoward incidents were reported. Meanwhile, P Rakesh Reddy, the BJP MLA from Armoor, told The Indian Express: “Why should Urdu be taught in an English medium school? Who is behind this? They were also teaching students kalima and namaz to convert them into Islam. Who is funding this?”
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The school management has, however, stated that “no religious texts were taught to the students”.
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