HYDERABAD, 13 March 2005 — Seven people, three of them policemen, were killed when Maoists attacked a police station in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh late on Friday night.
The attack was in apparent retaliation to the killing of 10 rebels by commandos in Manala forests in Nizamabad district on March 7. It was the biggest rebel attack on a police station since peace talks between the Maoists and the Congress government broke down in January this year.
Giving details of the Chilakaluripet incident, Guntur District Superintendent of Police Jitender Goyal said those killed in the attack included a circle inspector, a head constable, a constable and a home guard. A suspect who was called to the police station for routine investigation, the mother of a sub-inspector and a man accompanying her were among the other dead in the incident.
A group of up to 30 armed people, including 10 women, came in a jeep and another vehicle around 11 p.m. They opened fire and threw bombs and grenades as they raided the police station located in the center of the town. The group cut off communication lines before storming the building, Goyal said.
Circle Inspector C.R. Prasad and Sub-inspector R. Dharmendra Babu, who were interrogating a suspect, were taken unawares.
As they ran for their lives, the rebels chased the circle inspector and hacked him to death. The sub-inspector managed to escape. Home guard Youhana, who was on sentry duty, was killed. Head Constable Veera Reddy and constable Venkateswarlu were shot dead when they tried to come to the rescue of their colleagues.
Both student Hanumantha Rao and the unidentified woman whom he accompanied were shot dead. So was the robbery suspect, Jeevan Reddy. The attack lasted 15 minutes.
The village is about 350 km southeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.
The rebels’ area platoon commander, who identified himself as Suresh, claimed responsibility for the attack in calls to journalists on a mobile phone snatched from a police officer.
“We have carried out the attack as, on the one hand the government was talking of negotiations, and on the other killing our people through armed actions and by sending secret agents,” he said. He threatened more attacks.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and the home minister denounced the attack and the killings. They offered condolences to the families of the victims.
The communist insurgents have been fighting for more than three decades, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor. They often target police and government officials, whom they accuse of colluding with landlords and rich farmers to exploit the poor. They are active in several Indian states, including their stronghold of Andhra Pradesh.
The Maoists, who hold sway over large parts of the southern state, pulled out of government-sponsored talks last month, ending an eight-month-old peace initiative, after accusing the security forces of killing their men in “fake encounters”.
The struggle has already left more than 10,000 people dead.
