By IANS
Patna, Maoist guerrillas have denied reports that they issued death threats to Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid, ace bat Mahendra Singh Dhoni and cricket board president Sharad Pawar.
“No such threat to the life of cricketers has been issued by Maoists,” stated a press released signed by Agni, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India-Maoist’s (CPI-Maoist) North Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand Special Area Committee.
He described the widely circulated reports – based on a letter alleged to have been written by Maoists in Chhattisgarh – as a fraud by the state’s police to defame Maoists and paint them as “mindless killers”.
The story was planted to alienate the Maoists from “toiling people and a large section of lower middle class people” who are cricket lovers.
The statement makes a reference to the Chhattisgarh government’s Salwa Judum campaign against Maoists and their sympathisers.
Notwithstanding the assurance, Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda has asked intelligence officials to probe the threat and said that security for Dhoni, who lives in the state capital Ranchi, would be beefed up if necessary.