A move failing the democracy

Two separate incidents of encounter killings by the police force in states of Andra Pradesh and Telangana, killing twenty in an incident and five in another, on Tuesday have raised suspicions about the official moves.

Twenty woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were killed in an alleged encounter in Seshachalam forest in Chittoor district in Andra Pradesh who according to the special task force were found felling red sanders. The Anti-Smuggling task force who were on a combing operation in the area found the footprints and they “fired random shots in self-defense” when the men tried to attack them with axes and dagger. While twenty of them were killed no police official were injured. In an another similar incident the same day, five suspected terrorists were shot dead inside the police vehicle by the security personnel who were escorting them from Warangal jail to a Hyderabad court 150 km away. The undertrails according to the police statements snatched a gun and tried to attack the 17-member security officials who then shot all of them. All the five youths were facing terror charges and had been lodged in the Warangal central prison. No policemen were injured during the incident that took place on the outskirts of Nalgonda district.

The event has been called as cold-blooded murder by the families of the dead and has invited criticisms from the human rights activists and Tamil outfits. Questions are being raised as to why the security team could not manage the five men who were already in handcuffs inside a closed vehicle. The pictures released reveal that all five of them were handcuffed. The national human rights commission has ordered an inquiry into the matter following which an investigation by an executive magistrate and judicial inquiry has been ordered. The family members of the diseased have demanded a CBI inquiry saying they would not accept the bodies unless a probe is ordered into the case. Asaduddin Owaisi, a Member of Parliament has also come forward against the police moves. Both the incidents are unlawful and the injustice couldn’t be justified in any manner.

The fake encounter killings and fabricated cases are not new in India. The Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi incidents are instances. The encounter killings in Gujarat were carried out extensively under the direction of PM Modi and the BJP president Amit Shah with the aid of Hyderabad and Mumbai police. Shah was imprisoned in a similar fake encounter killing. The Andra police too had carried out similar operations targeting innocent youths and framing them as Maoists. The Chittoor and Warangal incidents are a continuance of such operations. Such unfortunate happenings mock the democracy as well as the judiciary. The police, intelligence, the underworld and the politicians with petty selfish motives who comprise the “deep state”, the highly rampant but covert political system, are behind such incidents. The Hindutwa Right wing and the media have always backed such people. The democratic and the human rights organizations should strive to put an end to the system and make democracy more transparent, ordering a thorough inquiry into the matter and punish the criminals.