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Top AP BJP leader shot dead

Stepping up its violence, the banned People's War Group has shot dead Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party unit secretary Mysaiah and a Telugu Desam Party leader in separate incidents in Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts.

A group of 20 PWG militants of the Kanagal Dalam accosted Mysaiah and his gunman at Teratipally village in Nalgonda district. They tied the gunman, snapped the telephone wires of his house and took Mysaiah to the outskirts of the village and shot him dead on Sunday.

They left a note declaring that the killing was in retaliation to the pressure being mounted by the government on Naxalites in five states and the BJP's support to the TDP.

This is the first time a top BJP leader had been killed by the Naxalites in the state.

Condemning the attack at a media conference in Hyderabad, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattatreya and BJP state president Ch Vidyasagar Rao said Mysaiah was never a target of the PWG. He was provided a gunman following an attempt by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agents to murder him two years ago, they added.

In another incident, the Naxalites hacked to death a zilla parishad territorial constituency member C Indrasena Reddy of the ruling TDP, at Kannur village in Karimnagar district on Sunday.

UNI

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