HYDERABAD, 3 October 2003 — Andhra Pradesh police yesterday discovered nearly a dozen mines at the site where the state’s chief minister narrowly escaped being killed in a landmine blast.
Zee news channel reported the claymore mines, laid about two meters apart, were planted nearly six months ago in an assassination bid on Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on his way to a popular Hindu shrine in Tirupati town of the southern state. Naidu usually visits the shrine in early October.
Naidu suffered a fractured collarbone in the blast. Rajashekhar Reddy, a deputy of Andhra Pradesh’s legislative assembly, was left in a coma, New Delhi Television reported.
State police denied any intelligence or security failures. Naidu was moved to the state capital Hyderabad yesterday morning from Tirupati, and is reportedly in stable condition. Naidu suffered a hairline fracture of his collarbone.
The impact of the blast left Naidu’s bulletproof car twisted out of shape and an escort vehicle was destroyed.
India’s federal government is considering deploying the elite National Security Guards to protect him, federal Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand said here.
Police said they suspect the outlawed People’s War Group (PWG), a Maoist organization established in Andhra Pradesh in 1980, of being behind the attack. As they mounted an intensive probe into the assassination attempt police vowed to turn up the hat on the Maoists.
State police chief S.R. Sukumara said that a high-level inquiry would probe how suspected guerrillas breached Naidu’s high-security detail. “Though there are no claims so far, the nature of the attack and the use of Claymore mines point a finger at the PWG,” said Sukumara. “The probe will not spare either the culprits or security officials.”
PWG’s operations began in the state’s Karimnagar district. It is also active in the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the western state of Maharashtra and the eastern states of Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar.
PWG rejects parliamentary democracy and believes in capturing political power through a protracted armed struggle based on guerrilla warfare, choosing cadres from remote areas where it runs parallel governments.
(Additional input from agencies)
