The CPI(ML) strongly condemns the massacre of 20 tribal men shot dead by the Andhra Pradesh police in Seshachalam forest in Chittoor district.
The police is claiming that those killed were smugglers and that the firing was done in self-defence. But all evidence as yet points to a cold-blooded custodial massacre. Those killed were not red sandalwood smugglers as claimed by the police. They were members of denotified tribes of Tamil Nadu, who are extremely poor and deprived, and who cut wood for survival. Unemployment and land alienation mean that they have few viable livelihood options but to be employed by smugglers to cut red sandalwood trees. The Tamil Nadu Government that is condemning the massacre, is itself responsible for the situation, because in spite of representations from tribal associations, the Government has failed to rehabilitate the tribal labourers to free them from dependence on the smuggling-driven economy. Politicians including MLAs of the ruling AIADMK are known to be involved in supplying cheap adivasi labour to the smugglers.
The smugglers’ mafia is extremely powerful politically in both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. While the police does not touch these well-connected dons who run the Red Sanders mafia, hapless poor tribals are arrested and jailed on false pretexts and killed in fake encounters.
This latest massacre is no exception. Last year, too, more than 20 tribals from Tamil Nadu were shot dead in Andhra Pradesh. Inside Tamil Nadu also they are subjected to regular custodial torture and humiliation.
The CPI(ML) also condemns the incident in Nalgonda where Telangana police shot dead 5 suspected SIMI undertrials while transporting them to Court. This too appears to be a case of custodial killing, in which the men were killed while wearing handcuffs.
The CPI(ML) demands that FIRs of murder be lodged against accused police officers in the Chittoor and Nalgonda cases, and a thorough time-bound judicial probe be ordered in each. Compensation must be paid to each of those killed. Steps must be taken immediately to free the 2000 tribals who lie in Chittoor and Cudappa jails and withdraw all cases against them, and to ensure rehabilitation and livelihood for the denotified tribes of Tamil Nadu.
