NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh police is jacking up the security cover for chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his son N Lokesh after Maoists sent a letter to a Telugu daily warning "suicide attacks" against the CM and his son to avenge the “encounter killing” of 30 Maoist leaders including women in the state’s border with Odisha last month.
Naidu's son Nara Lokesh told News18 that Maoists won’t be able to scare off his family and described the threat as an "occupational hazard."ALSO READ: Bhopal Encounter: DG Prisons Ignored Demand for Extra Security; MP Jail Minister Refutes Charges
"I am general secretary of the TDP and party to its decisions. We have to establish peace and harmony in our state. The Maoist issue is a serious one. We are always open to a debate and want a long lasting solution through talks in a democratic manner. We don't believe in violence or encounters. But sometimes, the police are forced to take tough decisions in the larger interest of the public," he said.
Lokesh also rubbished allegations that the slain Naxals had been drugged and later killed in cold blood.
The threats to Naidu and family were issued via a “signed letter” sent on behalf of CPI (Maoist) AP state committee spokesman Shyam.
CM Naidu already has Z-Plus security cover but the AP police have further increased his security cover after the latest threat.
"We will review the security systems currently in place for the Chief Minister and increase the security accordingly,” said Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) A B Venkateswara Rao.ALSO READ: 'Kill Them All': Bhopal Encounter Audio Recording Provides a Chilling Account
However, not everyone is convinced of the latest Maoist threats.
Revolutionary Writers Association leader Kalyana Rao described the letter as fake purportedly written by government agencies to give legitimacy to encounters and generate sympathy for the government.
"Naxals never do such things. They believe in an ideological war" he said.
Instead, Rao sought to turn the tables on cops by questioning the veracity of the encounter.
Top police officers who were a part of the operation told News18 that allegations like AP police pushing dead bodies into Odisha were "laughable".
"We always maintained that AP police killed them in an encounter. It was a joint operation on the border. When we admit to killing Naxals, where is the necessity to push bodies into another state? Did we say that we did not do the encounter? No," a top state police officer told News18 on condition of anonymity.ALSO READ: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan Announces Judicial Enquiry into Bhopal Killings
Encounter killing of deaths is nothing new for the state that has long had a Maoist presence. When the state was unified (before Telangana was carved out of AP in mid-2014) almost every government – be it a Congress government or a TDP government – had ordered such operations against the Naxals from time to time.
Former AP home minister and a senior TDP leader MV Mysura Reddy defended such encounters saying that the only way to fight guerrillas is “encounter”. Speaking to News18 over telephone from Hyderabad, Reddy who was AP home minister during the peak of Naxal movement in the early 1990s, said the Naxals are heavily armed like the law enforcing agencies.
"They don’t believe in Constitution and democracy. They understand only one thing that is fear. You can’t talk logic and reasoning with them. When they fire, police will also fire in self defence. I don’t agree with the people who question such encounters. We can’t treat Naxals like civilians," he said.
The encounter that took place on October last week in Jantra in the Malkangiri district of Odisha where 24 including seven female Maoist cadres were killed had raised widespread suspicion with human rights organisations crying foul.
According to the official version, it was a joint operation by the Andhra and Odisha police, and the raiding party recovered four AK-47 rifles, three self-loading rifles (SLR), and country-made guns from the spot.
A press release sent to the media and signed by CPI (Maoist) A.P. State committee official spokesman Shyam immediately after the encounter alleged that the encounter was staged.
He alleged that police used covert operatives to lace the food served to the Maoists with sedatives, and gunned down the leaders after they fell unconscious. In the five-page release, the Maoists said they would also eliminate former Naxalites who joined hands with the police.
The letter also warned about "suicide attacks" which was hitherto unheard of in any Maoist communications.
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