HYDERABAD: In a fresh outbreak of communal violence, six members of a Muslim family, including three children, were burned alive in a village near the riot-hit Bhainsa town in Andhra Pradesh yesterday.
Unidentified people set afire the house, killing all six inmates. The attack took place at Vatoli village near Bhainsa town, where four people were killed in communal violence on Friday.
In the violence in Bhainsa, over 40 shops and a dozen vehicles, mainly belonging to Muslims, were burned down by rampaging Hindu mobs.
Police said though the situation in the town, 275 km from here, remained peaceful, miscreants attacked and set fire to the house, belonging to a Muslim family, early yesterday. They also torched two shops. The incident triggered fresh tension in Bhainsa, which remained under curfew. Tension also prevailed in Nirmal and Adilabad towns as police have imposed prohibitory orders.
Taking a serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy asked district police to be on high alert and prevent the spread of violence.
Following the ghastly incident, State Home Minister K. Jana Reddy, Labor Minister G. Vinod and Director-General of Police S.S.P. Yadav rushed to the affected village for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation. Condemning the incident, Jana Reddy said, “It is a beastly and barbaric act.”
“Police are investigating the case and we will catch the culprits,” he said.
Adilabad District Collector Ahmed Nadeem has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
The main opposition Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Rashtra Samithi condemned the incident and decried the Congress party government in the state for failure to maintain law and order and prevent recurrence of communal violence in Adilabad district.
With yesterday’s incident, the death toll in the communal violence in Adilabad in the last three days has risen to nine. Eight of the nine victims belong to Muslim community.
Muslim leaders called for better protection for minorities, especially in rural areas.
“Despite our repeated pleas and appeals, the government has failed to provide protection to the Muslims who live in remote areas and who have a very small population in those places,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of Parliament from Hyderabad.
Owaisi who had visited Bhainsa town on Friday and rushed to Vitoli yesterday, said that the violence over the last three days was preplanned.
Owaisi alleged that activists of Hindu Vahini (an outfit of the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh), who had the support of local Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislator Narayan Rao Patel, were responsible for systematic targeting of lives and properties of Muslims.
He demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the incidents at Bhainsa and Vitoli and sought a ban on Bajrang Dal.
