The usual scene: Buses burnt by Maoists near Hyderabad. File picture

Hyderabad, Dec. 3: When gun-toting Naxalites blocked a highway in Andhra Pradesh last night and stopped buses, cars and trucks, most of the passengers would have thought their worst nightmare had come true.

But instead of being harmed, the group of 500 hostages were treated to lectures on the Maoists’ ideology and aims for an hour at an impromptu, torch-lit, midnight meeting in the middle of the highway. Then they were released unharmed.

An embarrassed police today explained that the rebels, old hands at organising village meetings in the dead of the night, probably thought this was the only way they could get an urban audience.

Some 50 CPI (Maoist) guerrillas in battle fatigues stopped about 10 buses, 100 lorries and 15 cars on the Marherla-Markapur-Hyderabad state highway near Endrapalli village, 360 km southeast of Hyderabad, in Prakasham district.

They left the women, children and elderly alone but ordered all the able-bodied males out of their vehicles. The captives were made to walk for about a kilometre along the highway to a point close to the village.

“One of the Naxalites, a woman called Gayatri, said: ‘We will not harm you. But we request you to attend our meeting’,” a freed passenger told reporters today.

The Maoists didn’t use force on those who refused to obey but deflated the tyres of their vehicles.

The occasion was the sixth anniversary of the People’s Guerrilla Army ? the military wing of the CPI (Maoist) ? being celebrated by the Naxalites’ coastal Andhra committee. Some 15 guerrillas, including five women, conducted the meeting from a makeshift dais decked with banners and lighted torches while another 40 kept guard.

The Maoist leaders spoke of “repression” by the YSR regime, the “brutality” of state police chief Swaranjit Sen and the “fascist” policies of the Congress-led government at the Centre.

“We were fooled by YSR once. We won’t be fooled again,” a speaker said referring to the chief minister’s fresh invitation for peace talks.

The speeches, which lasted an hour, were followed by a ceremonial celebration of the anniversary. Each hostage was then presented with sweets, a red flag and a copy of the latest edition of Kranti or Jung, the Telugu and English versions of the rebels’ magazine.

“They even smiled at us and cheered us on our way,” said Sugunavati, a passenger on the Ongole-Hyderabad bus, at Imliban bus depot.

The entire exercise halted highway traffic for three hours, district superintendent of police N. Balasubramanyam said.

Although no damage was caused to the vehicles, road transport corporation regional manager Soloman Raju said the rebels had deflated the tyres of the Kanigiri-Bodhan bus.

The highway operation was led by Shruti, the woman commander of the Chandravanka dalam of Prakasham district, and Mohan, the district secretary of the Maoists in Guntur.