Maoists allege fake encounter PRONAB MONDAL

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Maoists allege fake encounter

PRONAB MONDAL

Nov. 25: The CPI (Maoist) today accused the state government of killing Kishan in a "fake encounter". Akash, the state committee secretary of the CPI (Maoist), confirmed that Kishan had fallen to the bullets of the joint forces during yesterday's encounter at Burishole forest and added that he was "brutally murdered" by the government. "It was a cold-blooded murder. Kishanji was picked up from another place and brought to Burishole forest, where he was shot dead," he said. Akash said the CPI (Maoist) had called a 48-hour state-wide bandh from tomorrow, adding that the rebels would organise demonstrations in their strongholds through their sympathisers. A Maoist source said Kishan used to be guarded by heavily armed guerrillas. "They used to surround him all the time. Is it possible that they fled when fired at by the joint forces?" he asked, questioning the theory that Kishan was killed in an encounter. K. Vijay Kumar, the director-general of the CRPF, denied the allegation of a fake encounter. "Kishan was killed in a gun battle. When Maoists kill CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh, then it is a fight. If we defeat them, then it is a fake encounter. It was a clean and tactical operation," he said. Poet and Maoist sympathiser Varavara Rao also alleged that Kishan was killed in a false encounter. "Kishan was arrested on Wednesday. The joint forces tortured him for over 24 hours and then took him to the forest and killed him. We demand a thorough probe into his death," Rao said at a sit-in organised by the APDR in Calcutta this afternoon. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta wrote to home minister P. Chidambaram, saying the encounter "appears to be fake". He sought an inquiry. "I seek to know whether Kishanji has been killed in an encounter or he was killed after being arrested," Dasgupta wrote.

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