Six burnt to death in riot-hit Andhra district

MOB THEORY: A mob set fire to a house in Watli village during fresh communal violence in Adilabad in AP.

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Hyderabad: Six persons of a family, including three children, died when a mob set fire to a house in Watli village during fresh communal violence in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh.

Police failed to prevent the attack on early Sunday morning though they had been warned that there could be communal violence in the village. No senior officers were in the village at the time of the attack.

District Collector Ahmed Nadeem told PTI three of the dead couldn’t be recognised and all the bodies had been sent for autopsy.

Nadeem, who has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident, said five of the dead were from Hyderabad and were visiting their parents' home in the village for Dussehra festival.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K Jana Reddy held a meeting with senior officials in Hyderabad and would visit Bhainsa.

Taking a serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy asked district police to be on high alert and prevent the spread of violence.

Adilabad district is tense after four people were killed and 15 injured in communal violence and police firing in Bhainsa town of the district on Friday.

The clashes between members of two communities broke out during the immersion procession of Durga idols. An indefinite curfew imposed in the town on Friday night continued on Sunday.

Tension also prevailed in Nirmal and Adilabad towns, where police have imposed restrictions on assembly of people.