Two top Maoist leaders killed in Andhra

Hyderabad, March 12 (IANS) In a severe jolt to the Maoist movement, especially in Andhra Pradesh, the police Friday gunned down two top Maoist leaders in separate gun battles.

Shakhamuri Appa Rao, a member of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) central committee, was killed in Prakasam district while S. Kondal Reddy, secretary of its South Telangana zonal committee, was shot
dead in Warangal district, police said.

Maoist sympathiser and revolutionary writer Varavara Rao alleged that both gun battles were fake. He said the police killed the Maoist leaders in cold blood after arresting them at other places.

Appa Rao, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders, carried a reward of Rs.1 million on his head and was involved in the assassination attempt on then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in 2003 as well as the killing of two top police officers.

The Maoist leader, hailing from Warangal district, was killed in a gun battle in Nallamalla forests in Nettikonda in Prakasam district.

Police sources said some other Maoists who were accompanying him managed to escape in the deep forests. Additional police forces were rushed to launch combing operations.

Appa Rao, who joined the Maoist movement in 1982, played a key role in the first direct talks between the guerrillas and the Andhra Pradesh government in 2004.

He was arrested in 1993 in Chennai but was released on bail in 2000. He remained underground since then. He is the second top Maoist to be killed after the failure of the peace talks.

In 2006, police gunned down state committee secretary of the CPI (Maoist), Madhav, and seven other guerrillas in Nallamalla forests in Prakasm district.

In another gun battle Friday, police shot dead Kondal Reddy alias Tech Ramna in Tadwai Mandal of Warangal district. Hailing from Medak district, he was one of the top Maoist leaders in the state.

His relative and former legislator of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Ramalinga Reddy, alleged that he was killed in a stage managed gun battle after being arrested near Mumbai.

He told reporters in Hyderabad that Kondal Reddy was picked up a couple of days ago.

The killings come close on the heels of the police claim that Maoists were trying to resurface in the state in a big way following a series of setbacks in recent years.

Maoist activities in the state last year ebbed to the lowest in over a decade. About 6,000 people have been killed in Maoist violence during last four decades in Andhra Pradesh.