The Hindu : `Counter-offensive' goes awry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

`Counter-offensive' goes awry

By K. Srinivas Reddy

ETURUNAGARAM, (Warangal), Nov 19. The Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) by the People's Guerrilla Army (PGA) of the CPI-ML People's War (PW) went off the track when a bus carrying civilians was blasted by the naxals, mistaking it to be carrying policemen, near Kannaigudem village in the interior forest area last night.

In all, 14 persons, including six women and two children died, while 19 others were injured, eight of them critically, in the powerful blast that reduced the RTC bus into a mangle. (Initial reports had put the toll at 30). The dead included the bus crew, two teachers and villagers who were returning from a shandy in Kannaigudem.

Some of the critically wounded were shifted to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital in Warangal, about 130 km from here. A young woman whose condition was critical was rushed to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in the State capital.

The ghastly blast which has stunned the officials and public alike is believed to be in retaliation to the gunning down of five members of the PGA in a fierce gunbattle near Ilapuram, about 15 km away from the blast site, on Sunday. Heavy police contingents moved into the area to take up combing operations and also to shift the bodies of naxalites from Ilapuram forests.

A group of presspersons along with the Warangal OSD, Y. Nagi Reddy, returned on the same route barely two hours earlier in an RTC bus along with civilian passengers. Obviously, the PGA members who lay in ambush mistook it to be the bus carrying police and blasted it.

The powerful blast created a two-metre-deep crater on the kutcha road and the impact was such that the bus carrying about 31 passengers was lifted off the ground and turned turtle. The PW assault team, which is believed to have fired some shots after the blast, waited in the jungle about 100 metres away and blasted the mine planted in middle of the road using a camera flash gun. The wires connecting the mine could still be seen. While most of the bodies were still under the wreckage, three bodies were flung for over a distance of 50 metres. The blast took place around 7.30 p.m.

Police who suspected more attacks refrained from moving into the area and it was only presspersons and relatives of the victims who went to the blast site. The RTC sent a bus to shift the bodies to the Eturu Nagaram hospital, where the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu airdashed, setting aside his busy schedule in the ongoing Assembly session. The Transport Minister, M. Damodar Reddy, and the RTC Chairperson, Shobha Nagi Reddy, had already rushed to the MGM Hospital in Warangal.

The blast site presented a pathetic sight with groups of villagers wailing inconsolably. Parts of the bus engine, doors and metal sheets were strewn around the area. Most of them blamed the police for using the RTC buses to reach interior places arguing that it was innocent civilians who were getting hit in the ongoing war between the PW cadre and the police. "We want neither the police nor the naxalites. Ask them to leave us alone,'' Bayakka, a former MPTC member, cried.

``No. It's the fault of the PW cadre who triggered the blast in a cold-blooded fashion. Even if policemen were travelling in the bus, there would have been many civilians. The PW cadres had gone berserk and resorted to this mindless killing knowing fully well that there would be civilian casualties,'' the district SP, Nalin Prabhat, said, countering the criticism.

``The bus was moving slow while negotiating a gradient and then the blast took place. I was caught in the mangle and waited for over 15 minutes before wriggling myself out,'' Shamshuddin, one of the survivors, recalled. His sister, her two daughters and his aunt died in the blast.

Another cruel blow

Death came knocking at the doors of this family. While one of its members, an underground People's War (PW) naxalite was shot dead by the police on Sunday night, barely 24 hours later another family member became victim of retaliatory violence by the naxalites.

Vemulawada Ramesh (25), a resident of Gurrevula village is now battling for his life in the MGM Hospital in Warangal after he sustained grievous injuries when naxalites blasted an RTC bus near Kannaigudem village last night.

Sudhakar, younger brother of Ramesh was one of the five naxalites killed by the police in a fierce gunbattle near Ilapuram village a day earlier.

It was in retaliation to these killings, the PW cadres blasted the bus in which the naxalite's elder brother Ramesh was travelling. The condition of Ramesh, a washerman by profession, was stated to be critical.

The grief-stricken family members who rushed to the hospital were seen huddled together often breaking into wails.

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