Former Maoist leader Ganti Prasada Rao alias Prasadam was critically injured in an assassination attempt in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore town Thursday, police said.
Prasadam, a poet and convenor of the Martyr's Committee of Friends and Relatives, was attacked by three unidentified people near government-run hospital in Nellore. The assailants fired at him and also attacked him with a knife.
The former Maoist was shifted to hospital, where his condition is stated to be critical.
Prasadam along with some other Maoists was released from jail in Odisha in 2011 when Maoists had kidnapped Malkangiri district collector.