Date:13/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/13/stories/2008101360630100.htm

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Six burnt alive in Adilabad

S. Harpal Singh

BHAINSA (ADILABAD DT.): Six members of a family, including three children, were burnt alive at Vatoli village near Bhainsa town in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Sunday.

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

The six belonged to a tailor’s family, one of only two families belonging to a particular community in this small village about 12 km from the communally sensitive Bhainsa town. The badly charred bodies of the head of the family, his wife, daughter and three grand children were extracted from the debris in one of the three rooms of the tiled house. The daughter had come home from Himayatnagar in Maharashtra with her child and her aunt’s two sons.

While neighbours said they did not hear anything, relatives of the victims said they noticed the house on fire at about 2 a.m. They contacted the fire force. Though the fire was doused, the bodies were discovered only in the morning.

The family is said to have had cordial relations with the neighbours. “Had the family head feared for his life he would not have attended a bhajan programme organised that day,” a villager pointed out. He is said to have returned at about midnight. One of the theories being looked into is the role of outsiders in the crime.

Home Minister K. Jana Reddy, who visited Vatoli accompanied by Labour Minister G. Vinod and Director General of Police S.S.P. Yadav, said a CBI inquiry would be sought into the incident. He ordered a judicial inquiry into the conspiracy part and a CB-CID inquiry into the loss of lives and destruction of property in the Bhainsa violence.

To control further spread of violence and instil confidence among the people here, the Rapid Action Force would be deployed, he said.

Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi and State secretary of the Communist Party of India K. Narayana also visited Vatoli and Bhainsa.

Corrections and Clarifications

A Page 1 report "Six burnt alive in Adilabad" (October 13, 2008) was repeated in some editions as "Six burnt to death in communal violence" on inside pages (October 13, 2008). It was an error by the editorial desk.