By IANS,
Hyderabad : 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 in the state.
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.
Police sounded an alert after the killing of the two Maoists and advised ministers, legislators and other politicians on the hit list of the CPI-Maoist not to visit interior areas, especially close to neighbouring states.
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 Friday morning in a gun battle in Nallamalla forests in Nettikonda in Prakasam district. Police found an AK-47 from the scene of the encounter.
“The exchange of fire lasted for nearly two hours. One Maoist was killed. He was identified as Appa Rao, a state committee member of CPI-Maoist, while three to four others escaped,” Prakasam district superintendent of police V. Naveenchand said.
The officer said that Appa Rao, as head of State Military Commission of CPI-Maoist, was in charge of ‘military operations’ in the state and was responsible for all major attacks during the last one decade.
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, though he did not directly participate in the talks.
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 Kodishala forests in Warangal district. Hailing from Medak, he was one of the top Maoist leaders in the state and carried a reward of Rs.500,000.
Police said the exchange of fire occurred after police engaged in combing operations following information about the Maoists’ presence came face to face with a group of guerrillas. Some Maoists escaped into the forests.
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.
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 the last four decades in Andhra Pradesh.