By IANS
Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Saturday announced a judicial probe into the police firing on communist parties' agitation seeking land for the poor that left at least eight Left activists killed and eight others injured in Khammam district.
Reddy also suspended Additional Superintendent of Police M. Ramesh Babu and transferred District Superintendent of Police R.K. Meena.
While six people died in police firing at Modigonda, 15 km from Khammam town and about 250 km from here, a woman succumbed to her injuries sustained during police caning on protestors ransacking a government office in Khammam town.
An eight-year-old boy was crushed under the wheels of an ambulance shifting the dead bodies from Modigonda.
Out of the injured, the condition of three is stated to be critical.
The chief minister, who held a high-level meeting with Director General of Police M.A. Basit and other top officials to review the situation, appealed to Left parties to call off their land agitation.
"I can't say who was at fault without a thorough probe. If somebody has done something wrong he will be tackled properly," Reddy said when asked whether police were at fault in dealing with the protestors.
The agitation took a violent turn when activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), who were on a protest fast and blocking a road, allegedly threw stones at a police vehicle, injuring two policemen.
The policemen, several of them in plain clothes, opened fire on protestors including a large number of women sitting under a tent.
A driver of a truck, which was stopped by protestors, was also among the dead.
Telugu TV channels aired pictures of policemen firing several rounds from automatic weapons on the protestors. Most of the victims were shot on abdomen, chest and head. The bodies were lying in pools of blood while the injured were writhing in pain. Wailing men and women had gathered around them.
The situation remained explosive in the region as CPI-M activists took the bodies to the office of the Khammam district collector and were staging a sit-in outside it.
CPI-M leaders alleged that the police firing was unprovoked and aimed to kill innocent protestors.
The chief minister, however, quoted local legislator and minister for health and family welfare S. Chandrasekhar to say that an underground Maoist couple was leading the protest, which led to the violence.
He said there was no need for any opposition party to take up such an agitation as his government remained committed to provide a house to every homeless family in the state. He pointed out that his government also took up a massive programme for distribution of surplus government land among landless.
Earlier, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy sent Inspector General of Police Purnachandar Rao to Khammam district to conduct the inquiry. "If any policeman is found guilty we will take action," the home minister told reporters.
The violence and police firing in Khammam district took place during the daylong shutdown called by the Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-M to protest the use of force by police on their activists at different places in the state on Thursday.
The police firing evoked sharp reaction from all opposition parties. The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which had backed the shutdown, termed the police firing barbaric and inhuman.
TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu called upon the party to hold a state-wide protest while the Left parties have given a call for a shutdown in Khammam district Sunday.
For nearly three months the Left parties have been demanding distribution of government land and housing sites among the poor. Activists and many poor people have been occupying government land across the state as part of the agitation.
When the communist parties staged demonstrations across the state Thursday, police had caned protestors at some places. The issue had dominated the 10-day assembly session, which concluded Friday.
The police firing has marred the talks the state government was holding with CPI and CPI-M leaders to solve the issue. The talks between two sides remained inconclusive Friday and were scheduled to resume Saturday.
In Hyderabad, CPI state secretary K. Narayana, CPI-M secretary B.V. Raghavulu and eight other leaders, who were on an indefinite hunger strike for seven days, were shifted to a hospital by the police since their condition was deteriorating.