|
The A.P. police near Pedathundla village of
Karimnagar district killed seven women (girls), on the first of November. This
is the first of its kind in which seven women got killed in a single incident.
One would be shocked to know their age. Four of them were still minors. The
details of their identity are as follows.
1. Naretla
Swapna @ Pushpa (15 Yrs) D/o Chandraiah, Chinna Odera, Manthani Mandal.
2.
Kalleboina Komurakka, (14 Yrs) D/o Komurayya, Kambalpalli, Manthani.
3. Nagarapu
Sankaramma @ Suneetha (16 Yrs), Rudraram, Siricilla Mandal.
4. Janjarla
Prameela (14 Yrs) Surayyapelli
5. Cheekati
Vasantha, Donga Wanaparthy (18 Yrs) Ramagundam mandal.
6. Eligodu
Manemma (20 Yrs), Metlapalli, Kalva Srirampuram.
7. Janaki
W/o Potharaju (24 Yrs), Jammikunta
They all come from very poor families. Their
education was not much. Some were just literate, some were not even literate.
Except Janaki all the others were members of the Viplava Mahila Sangam
(Revolutionary Womens organisation) which fights against patriarchy,
exploitation of women and oppression on them. All of them were working as
labourers on daily wages till they joined the organisation six months ago. There
is no ban on the organisation.
While this incident took place some of them must
have been learning the alphabet, as some slates and slate pencils were obtained
at the site of the murder. This ghastly incident took place while the chief
minister was boasting about the measures that he would take to stop violence on
women.
All of them were at a meeting place along with CPI
(ML) [People’s War] naxalites. Seven of the total went to fetch water at a
spring. Six of them were in the water and one of them was standing at the side.
The police entered from the side of Bhoopalapalli (Warangal district) and opened
fire without any warning, killing the one who was standing outside. Others ran
unarmed. The police chased them and fired, killing some of them instantly and
injuring the others. Later they caught hold of the injured and tortured them
severely. Their breasts were chopped off, their teeth rooted out and bones were
broken at several places. There are signs of torture all over the body. Janaki
received the highest degree of torture. They were killed from very close range
and one of them was shot right on her nose and eyes. This incident of course, is
projected as an encounter in a routine cooked up story.
The Warangal special police party were responsible
for these killings. In fact there were no cases on any of these persons. Atleast
there is no statement as per that, from the Warangal police. Then why did the
police try to arrest them? (If at all they came only to arrest them). While
there was no case to arrest them why on earth did the police kill them? These
questions are to be answered by the "responsible" government. Let us assume that
the Warangal police did have some cases against them. In that case they should
have taken the help of the Karimnagar police to arrest them. But the Karimnagar
police appear to have no information about this. It took 24 hours for the
Karimnagar police to locate the place of the "encounter". In a state where the
police are highly rewarded for being responsible for such fake
encounters—perhaps the Warangal police did not want to give the share of the
reward to the Karimnagar police. That’s why they were killed and the bodies
handed over to the Karimnagar police.
The place of "encounter" which, as per the police,
is in "deep" forests, is actually located just two kilometres away from
Peddatundla Village. It can be reached on any vehicle. This village is situated
50 km away from Manthani, which can be reached in four to five hours. But the
bodies were there for 30 hours. Then they were shifted to Manthani police
station and kept in front of the station building without any measures to
preserve them. On the third of November doctors did the postmortem on the
roadside of Bokkalavagu, in an open place where bricks are made. The bodies were
kept naked until the relatives of those killed came. Though it is the
responsibility of the government to preserve the bodies, they did not even
bother to cover them.
The president of the APCLC Ms Ratnamala, in the AP
High Court demanding a re-postmortem, filed a writ petition. The court gave an
order to do so. By then the four bodies were taken away by the relatives. Some
of the bodies were cremated and some of them buried. The court has given an
order to take out the buried bodies and do a re-postmortem. The police brought
pressure on the families to dig out the bodies and cremate them. They did this
consciously to wipe out the evidence.
In spite of such severe repression why are many
women attracted towards the movement? What are the social and economic factors
that are driving them into struggles ? One should think. The government is not
trying to see the root cause of the fact that all these young girls are
participating in the movement even at the cost of their lives.
Let us go into the facts to understand the
situation. Oppression on women in Karimnagar district is alarming. It has a high
rate of dowry deaths. The government has failed to protect the women from
harassment. The only area of the government’s interest is suppressing the
revolutionary movement. The police personnel are always busy doing this, and do
not find a minute to arrest persons killing their wives for dowry. When Mr Vivek
Dubey was working as DIG Karimnagar range he gave a report of Dowry murders to
the government and even warned that the situation would go out of control if
proper measures were not taken to prevent this. He even mentioned that it would
be disastrous for the society if the women become desperate. But there was no
response from the government though a number of years have lapsed.
In Karimnagar district, in a 90 day period, in the
first three months of this year 88 women committed suicide. That means, on an
average, every day there is a death. There is an incident of rape every fifth
day. Though a total of 165 cases are booked not even a single person is awarded
punishments. Many cases did not come up even for trial. If the government makes
no attempt to improve the worst conditions prevalent, and if it takes no
measures for the welfare of women, they will definitely fight for their rights.
There is no doubt that the killings have a social background, but a more serious
factors is the economic exploitation. World Bank loans are gushing into Andhra
Pradesh (first of its kind to give direct loans to state government bypassing
the centre) and along with this, the loan conditionalities are to follow. The
government does not tolerate any attempt, which can annoy their "masters". So
that is where one should locate the reasons for the increasing violence on women
involved in the movements.
Let us unite to condemn these ghastly killing of
the police licensed by the government.
Let us demand that the responsible police personnel
be punished.
(In less than a month after issuing this statement,
T. Purushotham himself became a fatal victim of the brutal attack organised by
the mercenary police through specially-trained vigilante squads consisting of
lumpenised degenerate elements.)
|
