Volume 7, No. 7, August-September-October, 2006

 

Hail the heroic martyrdom of AP state secretary comrade Madhav and other comrades of Nallamala!

Murdering revolutionaries and allowing the bodies to rot shows the rottenness of YSR’s police state!!

 

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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