Condemn the barbaric attack on APCLC secretary Prof Seshaiah’s house
Five unidentified persons attacked the house of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) general secretary Prof. S. Seshaiah in Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh in India. A letter was found outside the house of Prof. Seshaiah on the next day morning in the name of `Rayalaseema Tigers,’ claiming responsibility for the attack and demanding the resignation of Prof. Seshaiah from APCLC otherwise, he was warned that he had to face the consequences.
On 23.11.2005 (Wednesday) night at about 10.30 pm five unidentified attackers first smashed the lights and the windscreens of the Maruti Zen car parked in the corridor and tried to break open the door of the house. Prof. Seshaiah was in the house along with his wife Shashikala (Principal of a school and also a member of writers organization called Virasam) his mother and son were sitting in the hall, ran into a room and bolted it from inside fearing threat to their life. The attackers left the place after creating terror for about half-an-hour. The furniture in the corridor, some books and door and window curtains were burnt by the attackers. A fire tender was rushed to the spot after Prof. Seshaiah informed the fire department and the police after the attackers left the place around 11 pm and the flames were put out.
Prof. Seshaiah (50), who is also the Head of Department of Law in Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Ananthapur, is the General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee since 1998 and he has been actively working in APCLC for the past 20 years. Since he became the Secretary he received many anonymous phone calls threatening him; recently he is receiving continuous threats. Exactly a year ago he was one of the mediators in facilitating the aborted talks between the Naxals and the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
APCLC is fighting for civil and democratic rights and rule of law, particularly against state lawlessness and its accountability for the past three decades in the state of Andhra Pradesh. APCLC strives to ensure that human rights are known, implemented and respected. In doing so, many of APCLC activists faced number of obstacles and acute personal risks. It lost 6 of its leaders so far in the hands of unidentified policemen and the state sponsored private gangsters. Like many other human rights defenders, in every region of the world, APCLC members have been subject to violations of their human rights. They have been under constant surveillance and target of executions, torture, beatings, kidnaps, arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, harassment and defamation, and have suffered restrictions on their freedoms of movement, expression, association and assembly. Not only on APCLC, on several other democratic mass organisations also there were attacks on those leading people’s movements and those raising issues regarding civil and democratic rights were being carried out at the behest of the State and its police. During Chandrababu’s TDP regime, the attacks were carried out in the name of different tigers such as Kakathiya tigers, Nallamala tigers, Green tigers, black tigers in the state of Andhra Pradesh and now in the YS Rjasekhareddy ruled Congress regime they were in the name of cobras, such as Narsa cobras, Nallamala cobras, and Kakathiya cobras. In short, those who defend the rights of others frequently become victims of human rights violations themselves. Defending them is defending human rights. Further, when defenders are silenced, there is a risk that human rights violations will be left unexposed and unopposed.
Back ground
Since August 2005 after killing a ruling congress MLA Narsareddy in Mahaboobnagar district by Maoist party a new wave of repression started on the several legal activists of mass organizations apart from increased fake encounter killings alleged armed Maoists by police in the state of Andhra Pradesh .The new outfit Narsa cobras came into existence with brutal killing of a senior activist teachers union Mr Kanakacharion 24.8.2005 in Mahaboobnagar district. After this killing Narsa cobras released a press statement with a list of rights defenders, activist belonging to several mass organizations fighting for the legitimate rights of different sections of people. After three weeks on 10.9.2005 Mr Mannem Prasad , a district cooperative bank employee and Prakasam district president of Kula Nirmulana Porata Samithi ( KNPS) a dalits organization, was murdered cold bloodedly.
Claiming responsible for it the cobras gave a statement , this time in the name of Nallamala cobras. Another list of targeted people belonging to several democratic organisations names are released. A few days after this on 15.9.2005 one Mr Kilingarao of Karimnagar district was killed in the name of Naxals Badita Sangam , a new outfit. Again after this another list was released this time by kakatiya cobras. In all this lists all those people whose names were listed were threatened to resign from their organizations as other wise they face dire consequences. There were almost 77 persons named out so far, who belongs to different Human Rights, Civil Rights and democratic organizations.
While all this persons are legal activists for several years holding responsible posts at district and state level in their respective organisations, who are also working as progressive teachers, lawyers, journalists ,writers ,singers , artists and small employees leading normal life along with their families. On the other hand the threatening statements released with the names of the so called cobras are unknown, unheard and unseen persons. It is pertinent to note that for a long time, the above activists received warnings publicly and privately by police and some were in fact illegally detained in the police stations in their respective places. During their custody the police also gave the same warnings to all above activists, demanding resignations to their respective organizations. That is exactly what the cobras also demanding now. When an all India fact finding team on this issue is holding a public meeting to bring out their report to the people, the cobras threatened that they would throw bombs on the venue and they would attack on the audience also. Every time they warn that no one should condemn their killings and no one should attend the funeral of those killed by them. In spite of all this people are protesting the cobra activity. While all this proves that the cobras are no other than police creation only. Moreover, even after so many days of all the above incidents, the state police took no action against any one. No one was arrested and none was questioned. Nothing stops them from their repeated unlawful attempts on the innocent legal activists. The very recent incidents are causes a grave concern to all of us.
Present condition
On 19.11.2005 The District convener of APCLC, Warangal unit Mr Veeranna, an ST Engineer’s house was attacked by Kakatiya cobras, his two wheeler also damaged in that attack. They demanded his resignation to APCLC. On 22.11.2005 a dalit School Head Master Mr D.Muneppa was shot dead by Narsa cobras in Mahaboobnagar District and on 23.11.2005 night APCLC secretary Prof Sesshaih house was attacked. The next day morning a letter was found by the police, one Mahesh demanded the APCLC leaders Prof Zechariah, Vijay Kumar, Purushottam, Kullayappa, Harinatha Reddy and Naganna to quit their posts by December 1, or else they would be killed, they warned. The self-proclaimed “Rayalaseema Tigers”futher warned that they would not hesitate to murder the APCLC leaders if they failed to follow the diktat. In fact 23rd November happens to be the same day, 5 years back in the year 2000 APCLC joint secretary Mr Purushottam was brutally killed by state sponsored gangsters.
Talking to media persons on Thursday morning, Mr Seshaiah expressed apprehension that the attack was the handiwork of the Narsa Cobras who had killed 4 persons in 4 months, since August 2005. Outfits like Narsa Cobras and Nallamala Tigers had claimed responsibility for those attacks. The Rayalaseema Tigers appeared to be a sequel of the earlier versions. Prof. Seshaiah told that organisations with the tails of cobras and tigers were nothing but gangs being organized by the police with former naxalites and other criminal elements to attack the civil and human rights activists and Whoever raises their voice against the police? He also reminded that such types of attacks are not new to APCLC. In fact APCLC is grown in spite of such attacks with the solidarity of all other democratic organizations. But, the deliberate silence of the government and inaction of the police obviously shows that there is a close nexus between the police and the killer gangs in the name ‘cobras’ which causes great concern in the recent attacks and killings. Our apprehension is that such a climate is tailor made to encourage social violence and eliminate the democratic space To prevent the perpetration of violations against defenders and the consequent worsening of human rights situations in the state Andhra Pradesh, APCLC appeals to all democratically minded people and associations around the world to condemn the intimidations, attacks and killings with a strong protest and support the rights defenders. We hereby reaffirm our commitment towards human rights protection and promotion, despite new and growing difficulties and attacks faced by the human rights movement in Andhra Pradesh. We demand a judicial enquiry into all above incidents with an investigation by an independent agency and to punish the culprits.
Kindly send e mails, letters to the following addresses( The Governor, The Chief Minister of A.P. and Chairman, NHRC) the press and other on behalf of you and your organisations and mark a copy of the same to us ( APCLC).to sureshkd@hotmail.com or seshuapclc2003@yahoo.co.in or S.Subhsh Chandra Bose, Advocate, P.B.Strret,Governarpet,Vijayawada- 520 002, Andhra Pradesh, India and call 944o1 57541 or fax 040 -27651256.
ANDHRA PRADESH CIVIL LIBERTIES COMMITTEE
Send your protest letters to
1..Sri Shushil Kumar Shinde ,
Governor of Andhra Pradesh
Office Address
Raj Bhavan,
Raj Bhavan Road,
Hyderabad
Mail at : governor@ap.nic.in
2.Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ,
The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
Office Address:Block-C, Room-404
Secretariat,
Hyderabad
FAX: 040-23410666
EMail :cmap@ap.gov.in, cmap@ap.nic.in, drysr@ap.gov.in
3. The Chairman, National Human Rights Commission,
Faridkot House,
Copernicus Marg,
New Delhi, PIN 110001
Tel.No. 23382742 Fax No. 23384863 E-Mail:
covdnhrc@nic.in, ionhrc@nic.in
In solidarity of struggles
Ch.L.N.Murthy, Joint Secretary
S.Subhash Chandra Bose, President
APCLC
