By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident of burning alive of a family in riot hit Adilabad district earlier today. State Home Minister Jana Reddy along with Minister for Labor G Vinod and the Director General of Police SSP Yadav rushed to the scene of the incident in Vatoli village and saw the gutted house where the six bodies were almost reduced to ashes when some unknown miscreants set it on fire in the wee hours.
The Home Minister ordered the senior officials to further strengthen the security and intensify patrolling in the rural areas in view of the communal tension.
Earlier Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy strongly condemned the incident and expressed his unhappiness with the failure of the police. He spoke to the Home Minister and asked him to rush to the village.
Meanwhile in a precautionary measure the police have imposed prohibitory orders in Adilabad and Nirmal towns.
The incident could not have come at a worse time for the chief minister as he was getting ready to project Andhra Pradesh as a “role model in communal harmony” at tomorrow’s meeting of National Integration Council.
Vatoli village witnessed tension during Home Minister Reddy’s visit when MIM President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi demanded inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) into the incident of burning a family alive. “We will not allow the Home Minister to leave this place till he announces the CBI inquiry”, Asaduddin Owaisi announced.
The Vatoli incident evoked strong condemnation from all political parties including Telugu Desam, TRS and the BJP.
The leader of opposition and TDP President K Chandrababu Naidu said that the ghastly incident of burning a family alive was the result of the failure of the state government. “The communal trouble is continuing in Bhainsa and surrounding areas of the past three days but still the government could not stop it”, he said. Naidu would be visiting Vatoli and Bhainsa on Monday.
The TRS President K Chandrasekhara Rao who left for Vatoli demanded an exgratia of Rs 10 lakh to the victims’ family. He said that TRS will make every possible effort to restore the peace in Bhainsa.
Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu also held the government’s inaction responsible for the incident and appealed to the people to maintain peace and exercise restraint.