GUNDRAMPALLY (NALGONDA DIST.) : The 97-year-old Vemavaram Manohar Pantulu would, normally, need the support of another person to walk or move in view of his ripe age. But the nonagenarian becomes astir with a twinkle in his eye when people remind him of his bravery displayed during the Telangana Peasants Armed Struggle against the oppressive regime of Nizam in 1948.
The warhorse gets instant energy and raises the tone of his voice to narrate proudly how he, along with his peers, fought against the Razakars, a private militia formed by Qasim Razvi to support the cruel rule of Nizam Osman Ali Khan, to free the people from the clutches of the tyrant.
BJP national president Amit Shah’s visit to Gundrampally village in Nalgonda district, which had played a memorable role in Telangana people’s fight against the Nizam, on Wednesday provided an opportunity to Telangana freedom fighters like Manohar Pantulu, who are in their 80s and 90s, to recall their valiant fight against the draconian regime of the Nizam.
While remembering their salad days, not only Manohar Pantulu, now general secretary of Telangana Freedom Fighters Association, and some others such as Gunduri Satyanarayana (85) and Shamala Yadagiri Reddy (98) tried to recount the ordeal endured by the locals during those times.
“Tens and hundreds of Hindus were killed by the Razakars. The militia brutally raped countless Hindu women. Sayyad Maqbool, a follower of Qasim Razvi in our village (Gundrampally), used to sexually harass local women. When lactating mothers were breastfeeding their babies, Maqbool sneered at their breasts. We resisted the attempts of Razakars with arms and the help of Communists,” the veterans recalled during their interaction with Express.
According to Satyanarayana, when Razakars did not stop the massacre in Gundrampally and its surrounding areas, local youth like him decided to shoot Sayyad Maqbool.
But, when they fired a bullet at him when he was with his wife at home, Maqbool managed to escape. His wife and daughter were, however, killed in the attack. “The incidents that occurred in the village during the armed struggle are still fresh in our memory,” he said.
It was an occasion for the freedom fighters to pay a fitting tribute to the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who liberated the then Hyderabad state from the clutches of the Nizam and reintegrated it with the Indian Union.
“Only because of Vallabhbhai Patel’s determination could the erstwhile Hyderabad state be integrated with the rest of the country. Or else, it would have become another Pakistan,” Yadagiri Reddy said.
Earlier, Amit Shah paid tributes to the martyrs of Telangana Peasants’ Struggle at Gundrampally and visited six families in the village. “Gundrampally was a witness to the Telangana peasants Struggle. The Congress is questioning our efforts to eulogise the peasants struggle.
What is wrong in our attempt to recall the sacrifices of the local people made while liberating the then Hyderabad State? The BJP will try to keep the memorable history of peasants struggle alive for another 100 years,” Shah declared.