Hyderabad, Aug. 21: Maoists, after a year-long honeymoon with the Congress regime in Andhra Pradesh, have declared total war on the police, administration and politicians of the state.
The rebels took a leaf out of the police book with a recent circular issued by the CPI (Maoist) announcing cash awards and issuing death warrants for top officials of the security establishment.
Wall posters in Guntur district, about 310 km southeast of Hyderabad, yesterday declared cash awards of Rs 5 lakh and above for senior police officials. “We will pay cash and also give land to people who either kill the police personnel who come chasing us or capture them,” said a poster at Adigoppula village signed by Sudhakar, a member of the organisation’s provincial committee.
District police superintendent V.C. Sajjanar said the posters are part of the rebels’ plan to cause panic among the public and the police force. “They (Maoists) are trying to demoralise the police and entice the people,” he said.
The director-general of police, Swaranjit Sen, has criticised the media for its portrayal of the Maoists. The fourth estate should not undermine the Constitution and the law of the land, he said while commenting on the arrest and subsequent release of three scribes of Mahboobnagar who reported on a Maoist circular on Thursday.
The Andhra Pradesh Union of Journalists had staged a protest against the police action.
The police also faced fire from the state human rights committee, headed by retired Justice Subhashan Reddy. It issued suo motu notices to Sen and Hyderabad police commissioner V. Dinesh Reddy asking them to file explanations for the arrest of Maoist emissaries Varavara Rao and G. Kalyan Rao on Friday.
The government has reinstated cash awards on 35 top rebel leaders after reclamping the ban on the CPI (Maoists) and seven of its sister organisations on Wednesday. The awards on senior Maoist leaders range from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.
Security forces have spread a dragnet around Hyderabad and Medak for the Prime Minister’s four-hour visit to the state.
