By IANS
Hyderabad : Two leftist extremists were gunned down by the police in Andhra Pradesh’s Warangal district early Tuesday, the police said.
According to the police, the extremists belonged to the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) Praja Pratighatna group.
The police said, they were killed after they refused to surrender and opened fire on a police party in Project Sagar forests under Govindraopet Mandal (sub-division) of Warangal district, some 250 km from the state capital here.
The police party was combing the area following a tip-off that some Maoists were roaming there and planning to extort money from some local contractors.
The slain extremists have been identified as Satayya alias Suresh Anna, secretary of Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam district units of the party, and his wife Rani, who was a commander of the party’s armed squad. Police recovered a spring rifle, a pistol and two kit bags from them.
Pratighatna group is among a dozen of splinter outfits of the CPI-ML. It is active in some pockets of Telangana. Police claim to have eliminated most of its cadres, including its top leadership.
Maoist violence in Andhra Pradesh has claimed more than 6,000 lives in the last four decades. The most powerful outfit CPI (Maoist), which was earlier known as CPI-ML People’s War Group, is blamed for most of the violence.