The CPI,an ally of the ruling LDF, on Friday traded barbs with its partner CPI(M) over gunning down of four suspected Maoists,reiterating that it was a fake encounter, prompting the Marxist party to say their trip there would send a “wrong message” to the public.
The CPI delegation,led by party state assistant secretary K Prakash Babu visited the site at nearby Attapaddi and interacted with the villagers and officials. The party, while reiterating that it was neither the government policy or stand to kill Maoists, faulted police, alleging that the Thunderbolt team engages in such exercises on their own and had not informed the political leadership of their recent combing operation. “The police report will definitely say that they were attacked first,” the party alleged. Babu told reporters that the information they gleaned after talking to the villagers, panchayat members and others was that it was a fake encounter.
He also said that the villagers had told them that they had never faced any trouble from the Maoists.
“They were killed by around 500-member Thunderbolt team. Somebody should answer such acts. We are now sure that they were killed in a fake encounter,” Babu said. To this culture minister A K Balan said the CPI(M) would never support any attempt to kill someone who spreads a different ideology and wondered how the team would ascertain who first opened fire, the Maoists or police. “I don’t understand why they visited the site. I wonder how they would find out who fired first, whether it was police or the Maoists. The visit will only give away a wrong message to the public,” he told reporters.