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PWG, MCC banned under POTO
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. Even as a controversy rages over the need for the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), the Central Government today invoked it to slap a ban on two Left wing extremist organisations - the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)- People's War (popularly known as the PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). Both were declared ``terrorist organisations'' under POTO with immediate effect.
``The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)- People's War and all its formations and front organisations and the Maoist Communist Centre and all its formations and front organisations have been declared terrorist organisations under the provisions of Clause (a) Sub-Section (2) of Section 18 of POTO with immediate effect,'' an official press note of the Home Ministry said here.
The ban came in the wake of stepped-up naxal violence in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar. With this, the number of organisations banned and declared ``terrorist organisations'' under POTO has gone up to 25. The Ordinance had proscribed 23 outfits, including several Pakistan-based organisations such as the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba which are operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
The PWG has already been banned in Andhra Pradesh. The group is active in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh while the MCC activities are confined to Jharkhand.
As the ban has been invoked under POTO, there is no mandatory legal requirement to get the validity of the ban determined by a judicial tribunal as is done under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Denouncing the ``mindless'' violence being perpetrated by the PWG in Andhra Pradesh, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has said the outfit has spread its tentacles to other States also. Addressing a public rally in Hyderabad on Sunday, he said that misguided youth were being drawn into the fold of extremism. The PWG was living in an illusory world of bringing in change through the gun, he remarked.
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