A string of murders this year in the backward Kumram Bheem (KB) Asifabad has baffled all concerned as this is an unusual phenomenon for the area which is generally bereft of any kind of violent activity. With nine murders, four of them in the current month alone, KB Asifabad has emerged top among the four districts which were part of the earlier undivided Adilabad District.
In the absence of a definite pattern, officials attribute the reason to poverty and illiteracy. However, the extraordinary spurt in murders this year seems to defy logic.
In 2016, united Adilabad had recorded 74 murders but the cumulative number fell to 53 in 2017 with Mancherial District recording 20, Nirmal and KB Asifabad 12 each and Adilabad nine. Only Mancherial, known for the highest incidence of murders is close to KB Asifabad with 8 while Adilabad and Nirmal registered five and four cases respectively so far this year.
No definitive study
"Yes, there is no pattern to these murders, not even drunkenness," concurred Kagaznagar DSP P. Sambaiah. "As all the crimes have different reasons behind their commitment, it is difficult to put a finger on one particular reason," he added.
KB Asifabad encompasses some of the most backward tribal areas in Telangana State and had figured at the end of the Human Development Index. Against the State’s average of 0.47 on a scale of 0.00 to 1.00, the district had logged a pathetic 0.13 in terms of human development, as per the statistics of the State's Planning Department at the time of reorganisation of districts.
The district also had the lowest rate of literacy at the time of reorganisation of districts in September 2016. Against the State's average of 66.54 per cent, the rate of literacy in KB Asifabad was 56.72 per cent.
Mancherial had recorded the highest literacy rate of 64.35 among the four new entities while Adilabad was third at 63.46 per cent. Nirmal District, economically developed at par with Mancherial was strangely just above KB Asifabad with 57.77 per cent.
"In the absence of a definitive study, the trend cannot be attributed to poverty and literacy," opined a police officer in the district. "It nevertheless, reflects on the society as a whole," he added on condition of anonymity.
