'Kishenji's encounter is a political murder'

Raising pitch to suspend operation Green Hunt, Naxal sympathiser and Telegu poet Varavara Rao on Sunday dubbed Maoist leader Kishenji's encounter as a "political murder".

"Kishenji's encounter is part of operation Green Hunt and the government should stop combing in the name of the operation. His (Kishenji's) encounter was a political murder," Rao, who arrived in Peddapalli village in the district to attend the funeral of the slain Maoist leader, said.

Observing that the Maoist movement will continue, Rao, a prominent member of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, demanded that the police officials involved in the encounter be booked for murder.

58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, alias Kishenji, was killed in a gunfight with security forces at Burisole jungle in West Midnapore district of West Bengal on November 24.

The Naxal leader will be cremated in his native Peddapalli on Sunday. Kalyan Rao, a leader of the Civil Liberties Committee, blamed the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the encounter.

Kishenji's body was brought to Peddapalli from Kolkata in wee hours on Sunday and is kept at his residence after the local police denied permission to his family members to keep the body for public viewing at Junior College ground.