Date:08/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/08/stories/2003110808740600.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Top naxal killed for `covert operations'

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR NOV. 7. The interview to a few select journalists turned out to be the last for Siraj alias Azad, the deputy commander of the Krishnapatti dalam of the outlawed People's War (PW), as members of the PW's Nalgonda district committee allegedly shot him dead and threw his body on the road between Gangulakunta and Sirigiripadu under the Veldurthy police station limits in Guntur district on Friday.

Passengers of the first bus from Sirigiripadu to Macherla noticed the body with several bullet injuries in the early hours. They immediately informed the Macherla police, identifying the slain person as Siraj alias Azad as the face was identical to the one in a photograph published in some newspapers on Thursday.

The body was removed to the Macherla hospital for post-mortem.

A PW note in the pocket of Siraj, purporting to be from the PW's Nalgonda district committee secretary (DSC), Naveen, claimed that the PW awarded "death penalty" to Siraj for indulging in "covert operations."

Besides helping the police in killing some PW leaders, he `connived' with some police officials to get a State committee member also eliminated, the note said. This was a warning to all those who indulged in "covert operations," the note said.

It also said the Chandrababu Naidu Government was encouraging `coverts' in the State. By killing Siraj and "leaving his body in Guntur district" the PW was throwing a challenge to the police in the wake of the recent "encounter killing" of a naxalite couple — Guntur district committee member (DCM), Lathakka, and the Visakhapatnam DCS, Kaumudi.

The PW alleged that the police "murdered in cold blood" the duo somewhere and "claimed that the couple was killed in an encounter in the Bollapalli forest in Guntur district."

The police suspect that the PW wanted to send across a message to officials, particularly in Guntur district, that it could scent any "covert operation" and counter it.

The killing of Siraj is expected to affect the building up of an "informer network" by the police, which is just picking up in these parts of the State.