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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The outlawed People's War threatened to walk out of talks with the Andhra Pradesh government if its demands are not met before the next round of negotiations to be held sometime on July 20.
In a statement to the media on Monday, PW state secretary Ramakrishna demanded that the state government should apologise for the killing of two women PWG members in a 'fake' encounter on June 24.
He also demanded a judicial probe into the encounter, immediate declaration of ceasefire and cessation of combing operations by the police and constitution of a 14-member supervisory committee comprising civil rights activists and intellectuals to monitor the PWG-government talks.
"The government must create a conducive atmosphere before the next round of talks before July 20, failing which the People's War will be forced to call off the dialogue," Ramakrishna warned.
He accused the government of double standards by seeking a dialogue on the one hand and eliminating the Naxalites on the other. Strongly condemning the attack by police on a PW guerrilla squad in Khammam forests on June 24, he warned, "Such acts do not create a congenial atmosphere."
He claimed that by resorting to Khammam encounter, the government mistook PW's restraint as 'license' and caused a severe setback to the efforts of those who wanted to take the talks to their logical conclusion.
Unless the state government responded to the issues raised so far, the PW would reconsider its stand on continuing the talks.
Ramakrishna also took serious exception to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's repeated calls to the Naxalites to join the mainstream by laying down arms.
He accused the chief minister of trying to lure the Naxalites to come overground by promising them millions of rupees for rehabilitation. Such statements would also undermine the purpose of the talks.
Meanwhile, the state Cabinet at its meeting on Monday decided to expeditiously implement the rehabilitation measures for the surrendered Naxalites.
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