HYDERBAD, 18 August 2005 — Andhra Pradesh yesterday reimposed a ban on dreaded guerrilla outfit — the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) — and its frontal organizations in the wake of the killings on Independence Day.
Sources said Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had signed the file relating to the reimposition of a ban on the CPI-Maoist and its four frontal organizations.
The state Cabinet Tuesday had empowered the chief minister to take any harsh measures he deemed fit against the Maoist rebels after they gunned down a Congress legislator and eight others in Mahabubnagar district Aug 15.
The federal government has also given its consent to the state government to reimpose the ban. According to sources, Home Minister Shivraj Patil conveyed the center’s green signal to the state in a telephonic conversation with Reddy. Reddy called up the home minister early yesterday and informed him that the state Cabinet authorized him to take all necessary measures, including the option of re-imposing the ban on the Maoists, to curb Naxalite violence. The Congress government in the state thus ignored allies Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which opposed the proposal to reimpose the ban on the ground that it would not help in resolving the problem.
TRS, which pulled out of the Congress-led government last month, had warned the government that re-imposing the ban would only make matters worse.
The police were mounting pressure on the government to reimpose the ban ever since Maoists gunned down Congress legislator C. Narsi Reddy, his son Venkateswar Reddy and seven others on Independence Day.
Reddy had lifted the 14-year-old ban on then CPI-ML People’s War Group (PWG) after his Congress party came to power in the state in May last year to facilitate first-ever direct peace talks with Maoists.
