KARIMNAGAR: It has been over 60 years since Telangana was liberated from the Nizams but 85-year-old Cheekatla Muttaiah, a native of Gouravelli of Husnabad mandal, still has the vivid memories of the armed movement.
Though India achieved freedom from the British rule on August 15, 1947, people in Telangana region continued to suffer under the Nizam rulers till September 17, 1948 when it was liberated through Police Action by the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel. On the eve of Liberation Day, Muttaiah, who fought against the Nizams and spent considerable time in prison, recalls his participation in the struggle with The New Indian Express.
“I was 25 when our 12-member team used to engage in guerilla fight with Razakars (Nizam army). We had high-level communication system in place to maintain secrecy and strike them at will,’’ he recalls.
“One of our team members was arrested by the police in 1945 for trying to hoist national flag. Enraged over it, we attacked and vandalised Koheda police station and took away 12 weapons,’’ he adds.
And a couple of months later they went underground in Vijayawada to escape from being caught. ``I spent most of the struggle period with Gattepalli Muralidhar Rao who strongly resisted Nizam rule,’’ he informs.
They were caught and put in Karimnagar jail in 1946. ``We even conducted agitations for proper food and amenities on prison premises,’’ he says and adds: ``As a constable abused us with unparliamentary language we beat him to death and ransacked mess.’’ Thereafter, though he was shifted to Jalna jail in Maharashtra with high security, he was freed from prison before Telangana was liberated.
In another incident, group commander Anabheri Prabhakar Rao and eight other members were killed in an encounter with Razakars at Mahammadapur mounds inflicting big blow to the armed struggle.
``Nizam army ambushed the commander and his team when they were having lunch on the mounds. Fortunately some could escape from the encounter,’’ he says.