Lalgarh: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee
Monday termed as "not correct" the killing of Maoist leader
Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad who, she claimed, had agreed to
hold talks with the government on behalf of the Naxals.
Azad, who was a member of the CPI (Maoists) politburo and
a spokesperson for the insurgents, was killed by police in an
encounter in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on July 2.
"I feel the way Azad was killed is not correct. Swami
Agnivesh has made him agree to hold talks (with the
government). What happened was not correct. I feel the process
(for holding talks with the Maoists) should start," Banerjee,
the Trinamool Congress chief, told a rally here.
Social activist Agnivesh, who is an interlocutor between
the government and the Left extremists, also attended the
rally.
"We pay respect to his soul from this meeting," she said
of the top Maoist leader.
Agnivesh, on his part, demanded a judicial inquiry into
the killing, stating that his demand for a probe was rejected
by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
"Subsequently, I spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
who assured me that an inquiry will be held. But there has
been no order for an inquiry till today," he told a rally
called under the banner of the 'Santras Birodhi Mancha'
(Anti-Terror Platform) organised by the Trinamool chief.
Agnivesh also demanded a probe into the killings of
People's Committee Against Police Atrocities leaders Lalmohan
Tudu and Sidhu Soren in West Bengal.
Stating that he was against violence by the Maoists,
Agnivesh demanded, "If they have killed people claiming they
were police informers, it should also be probed."
He said 'Santras Birodhi Manchas' would be formed
countrywide and a round table organised to deliberate on the
root cause of the Maoist problem.
PTI
First Published: Monday, August 09, 2010, 23:12