“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” - Global Coalition to Protect ...

and my sister’s in the fields. My father’s in front of my house and
Ramaiah’s behind his house.… They burned about 22 huts in
Boreguda….
I know they were all SPOs because they were wearing khaki
uniforms. They were few CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force]
wearing the uniforms with flowers [camouflage]. I don’t know how
many SPOs and how many CRPF. 104
On another occasion Lohit helped save a villager who was attacked by
government security forces:
On another day— this is before my father and sister were killed
—they [government security forces] attacked another man
[name withheld] who was taking his cattle to the fields. He was
taken to the forests and they attacked him several times with
daggers. He was stabbed on his chest, neck, palm, hand, and
shoulder. They thought he died and left him there.
[He] had gone with his two children to the fields. The children left
the cattle, ran to the village, and told the villagers that the police
had come and were beating their father. So around 20 villagers
went to look for him. I was also there. We found him, put him in a
bullock cart, and brought him to Cherla.… They kept him in the
hospital for four days and then shifted him to Bhadrachalam
hospital. We spent 5,000 rupees (roughly US$125). He survived
the attack and now lives in Andhra Pradesh. 105
104 Human Rights Watch interview with Lohit Rao (pseudonym), IDP from Boreguda village, village K2, Khammam district,
December 2, 2007.
105 Ibid.
“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” 48