22nd May 2018 shook the conscience of all the citizens of India when the news of police firing on anti-Sterlite protestors in Tuticorin (Thoothukodi) in TamilNadu and killing 15 of them reached the citizens through different news channels and media reports. Such a large scale attack on the common people is unprecedented in the history of Tamilnadu and even at national level such events are rare with the exception of recent targeted killing of the protesting farmers at Mandsaur or the firing on Dalits protesting against the ‘dilution’ of the provision of SC/ST atrocity act. A fact finding team on police firing on 22nd May, consisting of 17 members from all over India belonging to the constituent organisations of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) and Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) visited Tuticorin for three days between 16th and 18th June 2018 and met the family members of persons killed in police firing, people injured in police firing, affected villages, people admitted with injuries in the hospital. The team met government officials and collected details on the incidence of firing, protest action against the Sterlite plant, sufferings of the local villages and community after the Sterlite plant installation.
