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dated August 4, 1955: 2 satyagrahis shot dead

There being no issue of the paper dated August 5, 1955 :

Two unarmed Indian volunteers died and three others were wounded when Portuguese police opened fire on a batch of 28 volunteers who entered Goa on August 3 morning. Babu Keshav Thorat, from Chanda in Madhya Pradesh, died on the spot and Nityanand Saha of Bengal died later in Vengurla Hospital. Mr. Saha had to be rushed to Vengurla, 25 miles away, as requisite facilities were not available at the Sawantwadi Hospital. The three injured are lying in the Sawantwadi Hospital. Their condition is reported to be serious. The firing took place almost in an eye-range view from the Indian border, just across the Patradevi customs point, separated by a five feet strip of land from the Portuguese border. According to the volunteers of the batch, the Portuguese police opened sten-gun fire without any warning, obviously infuriated when the batch refused to obey orders to stop shouting slogans and not to march ahead. The 28 volunteers were the first of a group of about 100 to enter Goa from the Banda border. The firing was so unexpected and sudden that the third group of 42 hesitated for a few moments before crossing and then pushed ahead to bring back the body of Mr. Thorat and carry the wounded to the Indian border. The second batch, meanwhile, hoisted the tri-colour on the Portuguese customs chowki at Patradevi. Their slogans and those of the big crowd on the Indian border suddenly came to a stop when shots rang through the air.

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