Police here Sunday stopped Pratyamnaya Rajakeeya Vedika (Forum for Political Alternative) from holding a meeting, saying it's a frontal organisation of a banned Maoist Party, and arrested its leaders and activists.
Police arrested about 50 leaders and activists of the forum as they reached Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Baghlingampalli to attend the meeting called to mark 10 years of united revolutionary movement.
The forum's leaders and revolutionary writers Varavara Rao and Kalyan Rao and Jeetan Marandi, a revolutionary singer from Jharkhand, were among those arrested.
Police deployed forces and erected barricades on the roads leading towards the meeting venue to prevent activists from proceeding.
Deputy Commissioner of Police V.K. Kamalasan Reddy told reporters that the Hyderabad High Court had denied permission to the forum to hold the meeting.
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He said the forum is a frontal organisation of banned Communist Party of India-Maoist and any activity of the outfit is illegal.
Varavara Rao, who is heading the forum, was initially placed under house arrest and later taken into custody by police in Hyderabad while Kalyan Rao was arrested late Saturday night in Macherla in Guntur district of neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh as he was leaving for Hyderabad to attend the meeting.
Varavara Rao's wife P. Hemalatah condemned the police action. She said police denied the permission for the rally and now stopped the meeting.
"This was never happened in the past. We were not expecting this under TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) rule in the new state of Telangana," she said.
The organisers had said the meeting was called to review the progress, achievements and objectives of 10 years of united revolutionary movement, a reference to merger of CPI-ML People's War Group with Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) to form the CPI-Maoist.
