The Hindu : Naxals ransack MRO office, torch wine shop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Naxals ransack MRO office, torch wine shop

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, MARCH 22. The `protest week' observed by the People's War (PW) naxalites concluded in the district on Monday with the ransacking of the Mandal Revenue Office (MRO) building and destruction of a wine shop belonging to a political activist at Hukumpet.

About 15 naxalites -- majority of them women -- allegedly barged into the office of the MRO in the early hours and burnt the records after damaging the computers and other furniture. Later, they set fire to a wine shop owned by a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) activist and left the place raising revolutionary slogans.

The People's War, which was maintaining a lull in the agency area for the last few months, unleashed violence with the blasting of a market yard at Chintapalle on Wednesday. The following day, a dalam member shot dead the Tribal Welfare Minister, Manikumari's husband, M. Venkata Raju, at Paderu, when he was about to leave for a TDP meeting. The driver of his car also received serious bullet injuries when the naxalite fired at him.

The incident shook the entire district as it happened at a public place at about 8.30 a.m. The lone assassin after gunning down Mr. Venkata Raju ran towards the bus stand even as the shell-shocked witnesses watched him.

The Superintendent of Police, Sanjay Kumar Jain, said instead of destroying public properties and killing Girijan leaders, the banned outfit should join the mainstream by giving up arms. "We have intensified combing operations with the arrival of additional forces. If the extremists fail to mend their ways we will be forced to adopt a tough stand," Mr. Jain, told The Hindu on Monday.

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