Minorities commission to submit report on Adilabad riots

Hyderabad, Oct 22 (IANS) The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) will submit a report within one week on the communal violence and subsequent incidents which claimed 10 lives in Andhra Pradesh's Adilabad district.

A day after their visit to Bhainsa town and Vatoli village in Adilabad district, NCM members, veteran journalist Dileep Padgaonkar and Zoya Hasan, a professor of political science, Wednesday met Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy here Wednesday.

They said they would submit a report within one week about the cause and effect of the Oct 10 communal violence at Bhainsa. The report will be made public.

The NCM members said that the police should have been more alert during the Durga Devi procession in Bhainsa.

Four people were killed in the communal clashes that broke out during the procession.

Dozens of people were injured and several shops, houses and vehicles were damaged in the violence.

Two days later, miscreants set fire to a house in Vatoli village near Bhainsa town, killing six members of a family including three children.

Padgaonkar and Hasan went around the town and the village and interacted with the victims and elders from both the communities.

The team also interacted with the family whose six members were burnt alive and gathered details of various incidents from the police and civil officials.

Padgaonkar told reporters that the the main aim of the fact-finding mission was to bring the guilty to book, accord justice to the aggrieved and identify the lacunae in the system.

'Usually culprits in communal violence go scot-free because of various factors. The team will aim at getting the guilty punished so that it acts as a deterrent to communal forces in future,' Hasan said.

Meanwhile, the chief minister Wednesday reviewed the law and order situation in view of the recent disturbances in Adilabad district.

The chief minister directed police officials to deal firmly with anti-social elements.

Director General of Police S.S.P. Yadav and other senior officials attended the meeting.

Yadav said the Vatoli victims were murdered and thus ended speculations whether it was an accident.

Yadav said that the police would crack the case soon.

The police chief said 146 people had been arrested in connection with the violence in Bhainsa.