Activists of civil society organisations, sympathetic to the cause of the Maoists, staged a demonstration here on Wednesday demanding a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge in the recent encounter in Odisha’s Malkangiri district in which 28 Maoists died.
Taking part in the protest in front of the Prakasam Bhavan here, top CPI Maoist leader Ramakrishna’s wife Sirisha, who lost her son Akkiraju Pruthvi alias Munna in the exchange of fire between the police and the extremists on the Andhra-Odisha border(AOB) on October 24, alleged that the victims were “caught and tortured before they were done to death.”
Only a thorough probe by the apex court will bring out the truth on the “police excesses,” revolutionary writer G. Kalyan Rao contended and wanted murder case booked against the police personnel involved in the extra-judicial killings.
Dubbing the encounter ‘fake,’ the Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights State vice-president demanded the release of the tribal persons who were taken into custody.
State Civil Liberties Committee State general secretary Chandrasekhar urged the State government to stop combing operations in the AOB. Kula Nirmulana Porata Samiti president Dudu Prabakar Rao said raids on the houses of tribal persons, who were fighting against handing over the natural resources including bauxite, to multinational companies, should be stopped forthwith.
Victims of Maoist violence stage counter-protest
Meanwhile, families and friends of the victims of Maoist violence took out a rally in the city on Wednesday demanding a judicial probe into the alleged nexus between the Maoists and civil society organisations sympathetic to them.
They took strong objection to the extremists killing innocent people.
The ultras raised funds through extortion of business people, they added.
