The Andhra Pradesh Police team which rounded up the seven workers who were later killed in an encounter at Seshachalam Reserve Forest has committed a breach of propriety, if the words of the lone survivor are any indication. Sekhar, a casual labourer from Thiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu who escaped from the Tuesday morning “massacre” by the Special Task Force of the Andhra Pradesh Police which claimed 20 lives said on Thursday that the seven people who were travelling along with him were picked by the AP police from Tamil Nadu territory.
“We were on our way from Tiruttani in Tamil Nadu to Renigunta in AP. A team of plainclothesmen speaking Tamil got the bus stopped even before it crossed the Tamil Nadu Government’s check post, rounded up the seven persons and dumped them into another vehicle and sped off. They spoke chaste Tamil. I was sitting in a seat meant for women and they did not see me,” said Sekhar who is yet to recover from the trauma.
Sekhar said all the seven persons who were travelling with him were shot dead along with 13 others at the Seshalam Reserve Forest early Tuesday morning. “I got down in the next stop and boarded another bus which was on its way to Tiruttani,” he told reporters. He also said that till Thursday evening no body from Tamil Nadu Police or Government has contacted him. “I am ready to recount what happened during our journey from Tiruttani on Monday in front of any court of law,” said Sekhar.
Meanwhile. V Vaikunth, former director general of police, Tamil Nadu, known all over the country for his uprightness, honesty and integrity told The Pioneer that Tuesday’s police action at Seshachalam Reserve Forests reminded him of the Tiananmen Square massacre.