Maoists murder scribe in full public view in Bijapur

Armed Maoists brutally killed a key mediaperson, Sai Reddy, on Friday at a weekly market in a forested patch of violence-hit Bijapur district under Bastar region, police officials said.

Top police officials have blamed Maoists for the nerve-racking killing of the 51-year-old Reddy who was trusted as the key newsman in media fraternity of Chhattisgarh for years for his factual reporting from Bijapur where thousands of tribal families have been caught in crossfire between Maoists and police since late 1980s.

Journalists in the battlefield of Bastar's 40,000 sq km areas are sandwiched between the security forces and the Maoists since June 2005 when a Government-backed civil militia movement Salwa Judum broke out in Bijapur and later spread out in other parts of restive Bastar region.

Reddy's murder has reminded the chilling incident of a journalist, Nemichand Jain, who was too killed brutally in February this year by Maoists in Bastar region where Maoists run a parallel Government in the vast forested interiors.

"A small group of suspected Maoists carried out repeated attacks in a flash with sharp-edged weapons at Basaguda village weekly market at Reddy," Bijapur Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal told The Pioneer. He added that Reddy tried to run away with severe injuries but insurgents took hold of him and chopped him.

Maoists managed to escape after leaving Reddy in a pool of blood. The attack was carried out in full public view and some eyewitnesses called in Sanjivani Express, a free ambulance service, and put the body into ambulance for urgent medical attention but the scribe died on way to district headquarters Bijapur town.

Reddy was facing accusations from Maoists for past five years of his alleged association with the local police while the police had in 2008 arrested Reddy and charged him under the stringent Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act but later he was released.

Reddy's killing has been widely condemned by media houses, media associations, politicians and social organisations in Raipur and other parts of Chhattisgarh. 

Various associations and unions of Journalists such as Chhattisgarh Sramjivi Patrakar Sangh and Raipur Press Club, have termed the killing a 'cowardice act' of Maoists and urged police to apprehend the killers immediately.