Twenty-one people, including 18 women, have been arrested in Khammam district of Telangana and remanded in judicial custody for allegedly attacking forest personnel, police said on Saturday. The alleged attack took place on Tuesday last, said the police.
The people stoned the forest staff for entering their area to take up afforestation, they said. The stone-hurling took place in Konijerla mandal and injured some of the forest personnel who fled and lodged a complaint, the police said.
A case was registered and investigation began, the they said. On Friday, most of the 18 women, including three with infants, surrendered to the police and a court allowed the mothers to keep the babies in prison.
Earlier, on Thursday, three men were arrested, said the police. On coming to know of the incident, CPI (ML) New Democracy issued a statement condemning the action on the women, particularly those with the infants.
The political party alleged the Forest Department was harassing the women and framing cases against them. The party said the women were neither land-grabbers nor rowdies but ordinary people having a piece of ‘podu’ land to earn their livelihood.
The ‘podu’ land (podu cultivation is a form of shifting cultivation) has been a bone of contention between the forest officials and the people involved in such cultivation.
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