Andhra Pradesh

Six burnt to death in communal violence

BHAINSA (Adilabad dt.): In a fresh bout of communal violence, six persons, including three children of a family, were burnt alive in the early hours of Sunday at Vatoli village near Bhainsa town in Adilabad district.

The incident comes as a sequel to the communal flare-up that claimed three lives at Bhainsa on October 10.

Shocked by the incident, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy announced in Hyderabad that the government would request a CBI inquiry. He also directed the police to form special teams to inquire into the incidents at Bhainsa and take stringent action.

Earlier in the day, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy and Director-General of Police S. S. P. Yadav rushed to the village.

The six members belonged to a tailor’s family, one of the only two families belonging to one community in this small village located 12 km from the communally sensitive Bhainsa. The dead persons, whose charred bodies were extracted from the debris in one of the three rooms of the tiled house, included the family head, his wife, daughter and three grandchildren. His daughter had come home from Himayatnagar in Maharashtra with her daughter and two sons of her sister.

While the neighbours of the family feigned ignorance of the gory incident, the relatives of the victims said they noticed the fire at 2 a.m. Their efforts to contact the authorities resulted in a fire tender rushing to the village. Though the fire was extinguished, the bodies remained untraced until sunrise.

Neighbours of the victim’s family said it had cordial relations with the fellow villagers. Mr. Jana Reddy, who was accompanied by Labour Minister G. Vinod, ordered a judicial inquiry into the conspiracy part and a CB-CID inquiry into the loss of life and destruction of property in the violence.

To prevent further violence and instil confidence in people, the Rapid Action Force would be deployed, he said.

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