The Hindu : Naxalites torch two RTC buses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 14, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Naxalites torch two RTC buses

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR DEC. 13. Naxalites belonging to the outlawed People's War (PW) set fire to two APSRTC buses in Guntur district on Friday. Though reports reaching the district headquarters indicated that another bus was also torched by the naxalites, it was not confirmed officially.

According to information reaching the district headquarters, naxalites burnt the buses demanding the production of three persons -- Barise Kotaiah, Kandula China Daveedu and T. Venkateswarlu -- who were picked up by the police from Kolagatla village on Thursday.

At least eight naxalites intercepted the Guntur-Sirigiripadu ordinary bus between Mutukuru and Kancharagunta in Durgi mandal around 10 am and asked the passengers to alight. They broke open the diesel tank and set the bus on fire. Similarly, a couple of naxalites stopped the Vinukonda-Macherla bus at 11.30 am and asked passengers to get down from the bus. As soon as the passengers and the crew got down, they broke the diesel tank and set it ablaze.

The naxalites told the passengers, the drivers and conductors that their action was in protest against the picking up of the three persons by the police. They demanded the arrest of trio. In a similar operation, a few naxalites reportedly stopped another bus between Pullalacheruvu of Prakasam district and Vinukonda and set it on fire after making the passengers alight it. Of course, this was not confirmed officially.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Ray Vinayranjan, confirmed the arrest of the three persons. He said that Barise Kotaiah was the secretary of "grama rakshaka dalam'' of the PW in Adigoppula of Durgi mandal and Daveedu was his second-in-command. Venkateswarlu was their accomplice who was driving the motorcycles. The police recovered Rs. 1.50 lakhs in cash from their possession.

Kotaiah and Daveedu were accused in the case of blasting of Claymore mines in which four Greyhounds policemen were killed in July this year. Besides, they were accused in the murder case of K. Venkateswarlu of Adigoppula and thrashing of Arikatla Mangaiah and torching of two tractors and a scooter in the village. Adigoppula is the most sensitive village where naxalites have been operating for the last six years.

Bus hijacked: According to a report from Visakhapatnam, People's Guerilla Army members hijacked an RTC bus carrying 30 passengers, and released it after a couple of hours this morning in Visakhapatnam agency region.

The naxalites hijacked the bus at Devarapalli, a remote village in G.K. Veedhi mandal at 10.30 a.m. and took it further interior into the jungles. There they raised slogans and asked the passengers not to allow the police to travel along with them in RTC buses for their own safety. After a 10-km. detour, they left the bus and passengers in safety at Thurumamidi, another remote village in the neighbourhood, around 12.45 p.m.

The PGA members gave a note to the bus driver asking him to hand it over to newspaper reporters at Chintapalle. In the press note, they warned the Officer on Special Duty at Narsipatnam, Sanjay Jain, under whose guidance some 150 militia had so far surrendered to the police, of teaching him a fitting lesson.

The note, obviously prepared well in advance, also dared the police to come to Thurumamidi village, where the naxalites would stay till 12.30 p.m. on the day, a spokesman of the district police said.

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