India - Maoists call bandh on May 16

The east division committee of the CPI (Maoist) has called bandh on May 16 in protest against what it called the “killing” of one of its top leaders and Galikonda area committee secretary Azad and committee members — Anand and Kamala — in the Marripakala forest area near Palasamudram of Koyyuru mandal on May 4. The committee, in a press release despatched to reporters in the Agency area, alleged that the Greyhounds, on information provided to the Special Intelligence Branch by “anti-people” elements, surrounded the party members and shot them dead.
The party further alleged that the Narendra Modi and Chandrababu Naidu governments intensified the phase three of ‘Operation Green Hunt’ soon after coming to power with a view to handing over valuable mineral wealth to the corporates. “The governments do not want the Maoist party to survive since it is leading the Girijans in their struggle to protect the forest wealth,” the press release said.
The TDP government intensified police combing in the Agency to scuttle the agitation of the Girijans against bauxite mining and taking over of the coffee plantations. Two Girijans were killed on February 23 at Puttakota and 24 youths branded Maoists sympathisers. The two incidents adversely impacted 12 families of the Jerrela area, which had to leave the village and fertile land unable to bear police harassment, the press note alleged.
The party’s support to the Girijans would continue till their demands were achieved, the release said.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/maoists-call-bandh-on-may-16/article8587314.ece
Naxals east division bandh on May 16
Visakhapatnam: Maoists have called for an East Division bandh on May 16 in protest against the killing of Galikonda area committee secretary Gopal alias Azad, Anand and Kamala in Marripakalu-Palasamudram area in Koyyuru mandal on May 4. According to them, there was no encounter and that the three were shot dead in cold blood by Greyhound personnel.
In a press note on Wednesday, the East Division Committee of the Maoists urged the people of Visakhapatnam Agency and parts of East Godavari to support the bandh. The note claimed that Azar and two others were shot dead by personnel of the state special intelligence bureau (SIB) and Greyhounds. The note warned of retaliation against the TDP government and Greyhound cops for what it called regularly staging false encounters.
The Reds claimed that these killings were done to benefit MNCs to excavate bauxite in the Visakha agency. They said the TDP government had been trying to set up as many as 100 BSF camps and more than 100 cell phone towers even though the people are opposing it. Serious attempts are being made to throttle the one-and-half-decade old bauxite agitation and one-decade-old agitation against coffee plantations, the press note said.

The naxals recalled that the two persons who were killed at Puttakota on February 23 in an alleged encounter with security forces were not Maoists but innocent tribals from Odisha who had ventured into the AP forests for hunting. This was coorraborated by a fact finding team of human rights activists who visited the village in Odisha and spoke to an injured survivor of the incidnet.
The naxals also charged the security personnel with beating up a tribal youth and branding him as a naxal sympathiser in the first week of April. Further, in the recent past, around 24 tribals of Jerrela area were put behind bars under false charges and another 12 families vacated the village due to attacks of the security forces leaving behind two fertile crop lands, the naxals alleged.