The banned CPI (Maoist) — rattled by the recent killing of one of its top leaders, Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad — has vowed to avenge it with more attacks. The outfit has also ruled out any peace talks and rejected Home Minister P Chidambaram’s call for abjuring violence.
In a statement, the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee has cried foul over the killing, claiming it was a “cold-blooded murder” by Andhra Pradesh Police. It has also claimed that Hem Pandey, the second man killed in the encounter, was also a committee member, refuting his wife’s assertions that Pandey was just a freelance journalist.
Making it clear that after losing one of their top comrades, the Naxals would not sit for peace talks, the statement said: “Will Chidambaram expect the CPI(Maoist) to sit for talks with his blood on his hands of comrade Azad and comrade Hem Pandey? He repeatedly calls to us to abjure violence. Killing the unarmed comrades by AP Police with your blessings — is it not like devils chanting scriptures?”
“Azad was going to discuss with our comrades, inter alia, the concrete proposals of well meaning people like Swamy Agnivesh about particular dates for the mutual cease-fire. He was a carrying the confidential letter of Swamy Agnivesh written on June 26, 2010.”
The Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), a human rights organisation, has demanded registration of an FIR and an independent magisterial inquiry according to the National Human Rights Commission guidelines into the incident of killing of Azad and Pandey. According to the Naxals, Azad was arrested in Nagpur along with Pandey on June 1 when they went to meet another comrade.
On Saturday, Babita Pandey had claimed that the Andhra Pradesh police had killed her husband who was a freelance journalist and had nothing to do with the Naxals. The rebels, however, made a contradictory claim and said Pandey was their zonal-level committee member in Nagpur. The CPI (Maoist) said Pandey, during his university days, had moved to the radical groups and in 2001 he joined the then CPI (ML) (PW).
