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On July 23, 2006
comrade Burra Chinnayya alias Madhav and seven other comrades were killed in a
massive attack by almost one thousand greyhounds and special police forces on
the Head Quarters of AP State Committee of the CPI(Maoist) near Darabayalu Penta
in Nallamala forest. The attack took place in the early hours when most of the
comrades were asleep or had gone to answer nature’s call. The huge police force
had surrounded the camp stealthily during the night basing on information
obtained from an arrested Maoist who broke down during torture and agreed to
show the place. That is why they could succeed in targeting the secretary of
APSC, comrade Madhav, as they knew the precise location of his tent. It was thus
not exactly an encounter, as correctly pointed out by several organizations and
democratic intellectuals, but a one-sided attack based on information provided
by the betrayer.
A fact most glaringly
seen is the murder, after cruel torture, of those who were injured in the
firing. Comrade Madhav too, was injured, and hence could not escape from the
police encirclement. Until the evening of 23rd, his death was not confirmed by
the police. It was only that evening that an announcement was made confirming
Madhav’s death by the DGP Swaranjit Sen and the SP of Prakasham district,
Balasubramanyam, after a meeting at the highest level. It was clear that the
decision to murder Madhav, who was in their custody after sustaining serious
injury in the firing, was taken in Hyderabad and executed. Likewise, some of the
other comrades, who were seriously injured, were also shot dead after being
tortured. The events were as clear as day-light and the leaders of the various
organizations and democratic intellectuals and civil rights activists accused
the government of violating the constitutional rights by resorting to one-sided
firings and also murdering those injured in the firing. A Fact Finding Committee
led by Prof. Seshayya, President of APCLC, which went to the encounter site and
saw the bodies, told the media that the bodies bore torture marks and gunshots
seemed to have been fired from behind.
Leaders of various
organizations deplored the murders, described them as fake encounter and
rejected the police story. KG Kannabhiran, president of PUCL, said that the
state of Andhra Pradesh had a notorious history of fake encounter killings right
from the time of Vengal Rao and that the present government of YSR was competing
with Chandrababu Naidu in unleashing the worst type of repression and staging
fake encounters. He said this would result in a revolt by the people. He
demanded that murder cases under sec 302 be booked against the DGP, SP of
Prakasham and other police officers responsible for the killings and be
prosecuted. Leaders of APCLC, CPI(ML)-Janashakti, New Democracy, Liberation and
other organizations decried the killings as fake and demanded a judicial
enquiry. Prof Haragopal charged the YSR government that it was committing these
murders to carry out the imperialist-dictated policy of globalization in AP.
MRPS leader Krishna Madiga described the killings as part of a deliberate plan
of the government to suppress people’s movements. Everyone demanded an impartial
judicial enquiry into the cold-blooded murders committed by the state. Seeing
the criticism from various quarters about the cold-blooded murders, the SP
declared on the second day that three Greyhounds constables were also injured
during the encounter. But he refused to show the injured constables to the
media. The media personnel were not allowed to see the dead bodies on the first
day and by the time they managed to reach the site the next day all the corpses
were arranged at one place by the police.
The comrades who died
in this attack, besides comrade Madhav, were: comrades Ramesh from Anantapur who
was the guard of Madhav, Mallikarjun, also from Anantapur, Madhavi alias
Shyamala from Mahboobnagar, who was a section commander in the protection
platoon, area committee member Rajita alias Susheela from Hyderabad, JNM member
com. Parvati, and PLGA members comrades Mamata and Seetha. The police knew the
names of the dead comrades and had enough informers to identify the dead but
deliberately delayed announcement to ward off pressure from the relatives to
hand over the bodies and thereby prevent people from attending the funerals. The
irony was that only two names of the eight killed were announced correctly, that
of Madhav and Susheela.
These plans, however,
were foiled through concerted effort by the relatives, activists of the various
mass organizations, civil rights activists and democratic intellectuals. Right
from day one the people of Andhra Pradesh became aware of the state’s malafide
intentions although it had cited silly reasons for the inordinate delay such as
harsh terrain, lack of adequate means of transport to shift the bodies and so
on. At least a hundred relatives of the dead grilled the Home Minister, telecast
live in almost all the regional channels, to allow them to go to the site of the
encounter and bring the bodies or to hand over the bodies immediately to them in
Hyderabad.
The ulterior motive
behind the delay in handing over the bodies was easily recognized by the people.
Gaddar, Varavara Rao and others maintained from the very beginning that the
state has been deliberately delaying the shifting of the bodies allowing them to
rot beyond recognition and thereby preempt the demand for a proper postmortem
and the need to hand over the bodies to the concerned families. It was only when
the High Court was moved by the APCLC and the case was taken up be a senior
lawyer and democratic intellectual, Sri Bojja Tarakam, that the government was
forced to set aside its silly excuses and finally begin shifting the bodies on
25th night. A panchanama of the corpses was done in Yerragondapalem hospital
that night and the bodies were shifted to the government hospital in Guntur next
morning as per the High Court orders. Initially the government’s plan was to
complete the postmortem formality in the hospital in Markapur or Ongole but when
the relatives insisted that it should be done in Hyderabad or Guntur and the
Court directed the police to do so, the bodies were taken to Guntur more than 72
hours after the encounter. Section 144 was imposed by the police near the
mortuary at the time of the postmortem, being scared that the gross negligence
of the police will arouse the fury of the masses.
The corpses were thus
handed over to the families only after three days by which time they were
decomposed beyond recognition. The government of fascist factionalist YSR proved
itself to be not just blood-thirsty. It also showed its inhuman, unethical, ugly
features by this act of not handing over the bodies of the dead revolutionaries
to their families which is the minimum moral duty of any government.
Worse still, it tried
by all means to stop the people from attending the funeral of comrade Madhav in
his native village of Mangapeta in Karimnagar district in spite of the earlier
assurance by the Home Minister to the relatives of the dead that the police
would not obstruct people who want to attend the funeral. They sealed the
village from all sides, blocked the roads going from Peddapali, Sultanabad,
Muttaram, Srirampur, imposed section 144 on the roads leading to the village,
stopped all vehicles, noted their numbers and sent them back, set up video
cameras throughout the routes and in Mangapeta. Thousands of police were
deployed everywhere to create an atmosphere of terror to deter the people from
going to Mangapeta. They even tried to stop the people of Madhav’s native
village from attending the funeral. Undeterred, when people proceeded on foot to
have the last glimpse of the corpse of their beloved leader, they were stopped
in the outskirts of the village. The infuriated women of Mangapeta defied the
police threats and went in a 2 KM procession to Coonaram, held a demonstration
and brought the people who were stopped there by the police. Slogans like "Comrade
Madhav Amar Rahe!", "Down with Police Zulum!", rent the air. In spite
of the police threats and blockade, thousands of people managed to enter the
village through various means dodging the police cordon. Overall, it is
estimated that at least 20,000 people who came to attend the funeral were
prevented by YSR’s khaki goons. It goes to the credit of the people,
particularly women, for having foiled the evil designs of the police to prevent
people from performing the last rites of the revolutionary leader.
Revolutionary poet
Varavara Rao, Jana Natya Mandali leader and balladeer Gaddar, RWA leader Kalyan
Rao and MRPS leader Krishna Madiga addressed the meeting in the village and
participated in the funeral procession which lasted from 1 PM to 4.30 PM. Red
flag was draped over the body of comrade Madhav. Gaddar sang a newly-composed
song on Madhav and said that the sacrifices of Madhav and other comrades will
certainly make the revolution victorious and that the blood that had spilt in
Nallamala will not go in vain. He said that encounters were taking place in the
state under the direction of the World Bank and the imperialists who control the
land, forest, water and all resources in the state. Varavara Rao said that
revolution has no death and that it is due to the conviction of the masses in
revolution that the Maoists are enjoying enormous support. He alleged that it is
not only YSR but also George Bush and the imperialists who are afraid of the
Maoist movement in India and hence these oppressors were carrying out encounter
killings. Kalyan Rao asserted that Maoist movement cannot be contained by
killing leaders like Madhav, that repression will only show the path for revolt
and can never establish peace as fondly dreamt by the exploiting ruling classes.
He said that martyrs like Madhav will remain forever in the hearts of the people
and mothers will name their children after these martyrs.
The attack on the
Maoist camp in Nallamala forest was the culmination of the series of attacks
that YSR’s police state had unleashed since the breakdown of the talks with the
Maoists in end 2004. In the period since January 2005 till the end of July 2006
around 254 Naxalites were killed of which over 200 belonged to the CPI(Maoist).
The armed offensive was stepped up in Nallamala forest region since the
beginning of the current year after establishing an extensive network of police
informers and some covert agents. In Guntur and Prakasham districts alone 400
homeguards were recruited with a salary of Rs. 3000 per month. Another 200
people from adivasis, dalits and backward castes were appointed as special
police officers (SPOs) with pay ranging from Rs. 1500-2500. Around Rs. 25 lakhs
is distributed to these informers every month in these two districts and it was
based on the information provided by these informers regarding the movements of
the Maoist squads that the Greyhounds and other anti-Naxal forces conducted
their attacks. In the stepped-up offensive in Nallamala forest this year, at
least 50 comrades were killed.
In five big incidents
at least 35 comrades had laid down their lives since the end of April. Half of
these martyrs were women comrades. In the first incident that took place in
Seshachalam forest in the last week of April, nine comrades belonging to the
platoon under Anantapur-Cuddapah Divisional committee were killed which included
the divisional committee secretary comrade Ganesh and divisional committee
member-cum-platoon commander comrade Rammohan alias Naresh. Six of the martyrs
were women comrades. In the second incident near PRC Tanda in Pullalacheruvu
mandal in Nallamala on June 16, comrade Ravi Kumar alias Sridhar, a member of
the state committee as well as the state committee’s secretariat, was killed.
Three other comrades, who were caught at an appointment place on June 15, were
tortured for two days and shot dead the next day. Comrade Sudhakar alias Suresh,
a member of the district committee of Guntur, was arrested and murdered two days
later. In the third incident in the last week of June, a PLGA squad in
Mahbobnagar was surrounded and in the ensuing encounter eight comrades were
killed. The fourth incident was the attack on the APSC HQ on July 23 in which
eight comrades including the state secretary comrade Madhav became martyrs. In
the latest encounter on August 3rd, the platoon of the Anantapur-Cuddapah
divisional committee was attacked in which four comrades died including comrade
Sathyam alias Kranti, a district committee organizer. The PLGA comrades fought
heroically killing one Greyhounds constable. The comrades who died were taking
bath near a stream when they were fired upon suddenly by the Greyhounds batch.
In most of these
incidents the police acted on precise information provided by the informers,
resorted to one-sided firing through surprise attacks, and killed all those who
became immobile after being injured in the firing. Hence not a single comrade
was arrested as such a thing had never been the tradition of the police state in
AP. In almost all the incidents the dead bore torture marks, a grim reminder of
the violations of human rights and the unlawful nature of the activities of the
police force in AP.
The revolutionary war
in Andhra Pradesh had witnessed many ups and downs, had passed through more
difficult times, but had always recovered from the losses and advanced further.
Such has been the history of four decades of people’s war, and needless to say,
the martyrdom of comrades Madhav, Ravi Kumar and several revolutionaries in AP
will not deter the revolutionaries but will further strengthen their resolve to
more steadfastly advance the revolutionary war.
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