The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Mysterious fire haunts Utlapally villagers

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Sunday, Oct 07, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Mysterious fire haunts Utlapally villagers

S. Ramu

Cultural shows screened in a bid to inculcate scientific temper

The Police Department deputes eight armed personnel in the village
Many villagers are spending sleepless nights outside their homes

- PHOTO: R. Biksham Ruther

On alert: Policemen keeping vigil at Utlapally of Gurrampodu mandal of Nalgonda district on Saturday.

UTLAPALLY (NALGONDA): A series of mysterious fire accidents with regular intervals has been giving sleepless nights for the villagers of this tiny village of Gurrampodu mandal for the last ten days.

Even as the police department deputed eight armed personnel to resolve the mystery behind the sudden fire, many villagers are spending their nights outside their homes as a precautionary measure.

“So far six thatched houses had been reduced to ashes in the mysterious fire accidents in the village. We don’t know who is behind it,” a perplexed sarpanch Saida Begam of the Telugu Desam Party told The Hindu on Saturday.

She said that a house caught fire while the police team was patrolling in another street. At least six persons could escape from the flames that rendered a couple of families homeless. All put together, there are 180 houses in the village.

Religious turn

The ghastly episode took a religious turn as the first two houses caught in the fire belonged to Hindus. “While this version was gaining ground in the village, three houses of poor Muslims too caught in fire,” the sarpanch maintained.

Sheik Madarbee is the worst victim. “We (five persons) were in deep sleep in the early hours of Thursday. I woke up to the cries of the villagers. Thanks to the initiative of the villagers, we could save our lives,” she said, while wiping out her tears.

Jewellery, costly cloths of her newly-wed son and his wife were completely destroyed in the midnight fire along with some cash and grain. A stock of chillies of a villager too caught fire under mysterious circumstances.

Cultural shows

The villagers reportedly engaged an expert in witchcraft to exorcise the evil spirit but he is not interested to take up the “task” since the police opened a special camp in the village.

In a bid to inculcate scientific temper among the villagers in this hour of crisis, police organised cultural shows.

“We think there is no evil spirit. Someone might be resorting to this dirty trick to create panic among the villagers. We will be with them till they regain their confidence,” a member of the police team said.

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