HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Human Rights Commission (TSHRC) has directed Nagarkurnool forest officials, accused of battering 16 women and eight men from the tribal community, to furnish a written explanation over the incident.
This was following a protest by several Lambadas from Amrabad district outside the SHRC office in Hyderabad on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod has assured justice to aggrieved community.
Several Lambadas including elderly women staged a sit-in protest despite the searing heat. Protestors - many of them with injuries on their head and limbs - alleged that on the eve of Holi, when a few members of the tribe went inside the Nallamala forest to pick Mahua flowers, they were assaulted by forest officials.
K Patya (48), one of the victims, who received injuries on his head, told The New Indian Express, "After collecting flowers, we were sleeping in the forest when officials suddenly attacked us in the middle of the night. They forced us to strip and they started beating us. They even beat up a 70-year-old woman."
Another tribal, K Anchali (49), said, "We demand the DFO’s resignation and cases against the forest officials under SC/ST Atrocities Act."
As per SHRC officials, a petition has been filed in this regard. The Nagarkurnool DFO has been directed to give a written explanation and also be present before the commission at the hearing on April 26. After meeting with several Telangana tribal associations, Minister Satyavathi Rathod said, "We assured the victims that we will provide medical treatment to them and action will be taken against the forest officials who attacked them."