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Maoists blast ex-MLA's house in Visakhapatnam

Staff Reporter

Stepped up violence in Visakhapatnam Agency area

VISAKHAPATNAM: Maoists blasted the house of former MLA and Congress leader Pasupuleti Balaraju in the small hours of Sunday here.

According to information reaching here, five Maoists woke up Balaraju's mother, asked her to come out and blasted the house. The tiled house was partially damaged, it was learnt.

The blasting of Balaraju's house followed the setting afire of a Forest Department's jeep by Maoists and exchange of fire between the Police and Maoists on Saturday night. The Maoists came to the house, about one and a half km. away from the GK Veedhi police station, around 1.30 a.m. and blasted the house by exploding two landmines, the police said. Before triggering the blast, they had asked Mr. Balaraju's aged mother to come out. Some relatives keep her company during the day but at night she stays alone, it was learnt. Mr. Balaraju has not been staying in the house for a long time. The former MLA was kidnapped in 1993 and was held captive by naxalites for more than three weeks to secure the release of their leader Kranti Ranadev.

In a letter reportedly left at the blast site, Maoists warned that Congress leaders would pay a heavy price if killing "unarmed Maoists'' in "fake encounters'' was not stopped. They maintained that Mr. Balaraju's alleged support for bauxite mining in the Agency area was one of the reasons for blasting the house.

Maoists have been campaigning for `boycott'' of the local bodies' elections scheduled for July 2 and warning against contesting in the polls in the tribal area. In the nearby Pedabayalu mandal also they had canvassed against the elections. The series of incidents on Saturday are likely to have an impact on the campaigning in the 11 mandals of the Agency area. Maoists resort to blasting of political leaders' houses before elections to derail the political process. In the past, they had blasted the houses of former Minister Matsarasa Balaraju and a former TDP MLA M.V. Satyanarayana.

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