Simdega: The body of Bihar
policeman Lucas Tete, who was abducted and killed by the
Maoists was laid to rest in his native Porhatali village in
Simdega district.
The body of Tete was brought to his village yesterday and
was laid to rest after district police chief Anoop Birtharay a
large number of villagers, who are of Kharia tribal community
to which Tete belonged paid their last respects.
"We are innocents, therefore we have become the target,"
said a sobbing Pyari, Tete’s wife.
Tete’s daughter Angela said "My father fought in the
interest of the nation and had become a martyr."
"I am proud of him," she said.
Meanwhile, the people of Porhatoli village in Simdega
district today expressed anger over the Maoists killing of
tribal people and rejected their claim of fighting for their
causes.
"It is all lies about the Maoists fighting for the cause
of the poor tribals. We have been the victims of naxal
violence for the last nearly a decade because of our
innocence," Peter Tete, the cousin of Lucas Tete said.
"Had he been a non-tribal, the Maoists would not have
shot him dead first," he said and reminded how Jharkhand
Special Branch officer Francis Induwar, a tribal, had been
killed by the Maoists in October last year.
Incidentally, both Tete and Induwar belonged to bordering
tribal-dominated districts of Khunti and Simdega.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, September 05, 2010, 20:53