VISAKHAPATNAM: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) has demanded that the State Government immediately stop the murders perpetrated by it in the guise of `encounters'.

In a statement here on Friday, HRF general secretary K. Balagopal and secretary V.S. Krishna, said that the information gathered by the HRF had revealed that the police had in a one-sided attack claimed two lives in the October 27 encounter in Nallabelli forest area of Budaralla panchayat in Koyyuru mandal.

The police themselves have admitted to have opened fire on Jana Natya Mandali (JNM) workers' show. That JNM was organising its activities in the underground may be true, but there was no chance of their possessing harmful weapons. It would not have been difficult for the police to force them to surrender and arrest them. Yet, police attacked them and claimed two lives," they alleged.

No retaliation

One of the dead was Korra Sanyasi Rao who seemed to have acted as a sentry. Police, who swarmed the place in large numbers, killed him first and next attacked the gathering, in which one of the JNM workers Lothu Somulamma (Lakshmi) was shot dead. The JNM workers did not retaliate, nor were they in a position to do so, the HRF leaders stated.

``As soon as any information on the naxalites' presence is received, it has become a practice to swarm them and shoot them as if they are wild animals. This certainly is against law. We have made this clear umpteen number of times, but still the killings continue.

This cannot be a result of overaction by the police, but is done with the consent of the Government, as a Government policy," the duo alleged.

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