Says Police opened fire only after exhausting all methods to control the agitators
Hyderabad, July 28, 2007The Chief Minister, Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Saturday after a review meeting with the Home Minister, K Jana Reddy and senior Police Officials at the Secretariat defended the action of the police in resorting to police firing. He said that the police had been acting ever since the Left Parties took up the agitation for allotment of house sites to the poor nearly two months ago.
He said that the police had been following instructions given to them that they should exercise maximum possible restraint while dealing with the agitators which were in any case uncalled for as the government had been acting in a pro active manner in the matter of distribution of lands to the landless poor.
There were several incidents of demonstrators throwing stones on the police personnel, throwing chilly powder in their eyes but they acted very responsibly. Even in Mudigonda, before opening fire, the police tried to use other methods like lathi charge but the crowd was very aggressive. It may be noted that some police personnel were injured when the demonstrators threw stones at them and the police had no option except to open fire. However, he said that the incident is quite unfortunate and the government had ordered a judicial inquiry and also suspended the Additional Superintendent of Police and transferred the Superintend of Police and initiated a departmental action. He said that action will be taken only after the Judicial Commission submits its report not only on the police officers but also those responsible for leading the incident.
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