Maoist link? Raids on Andhra, Telengana activists for their 'fight' against injustice

By A Representative
The National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO), condemning National Investigation Agency (NIA) recent raids on Telangana and Andhra Pradesh activists, has said that it wasn’t any surprise that NIA raided the houses of around 25 activists of the two states for their alleged links with Maoists.
“The raids went on till the early midnight hours of April 1, 2021. The NIA also seized some documents and other stuff from the houses of the activists”, NCHRO said in an email alert, giving the examples of Raghunath Verose, a high court advocate in Telangana and Vice President of the Civil Liberties Committee, V.S. Krishna of the Human Rights Forum, Varalakshmi and Arun of the Revolutionary Writers’ Association, of how their houses were raided.
“Devendra, Shilpa, Swapna, Rajeswari and Padma of the Chaitanya Mahila Sangam, Raghunath, Chilika Chandrashekhar and Chitti Babu of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee also had their houses raided by the NIA”, NCHRO said, adding, “The raids happened after the NIA took over the investigation of the arrest of an alleged Maoist courier named Pangi Naganna.”
Claiming that the activists whose houses were raided “have all contributed to the fight against injustice on Adivasis in one way or another”, NCHRO said, “That is why they are being targeted by the government.” It added “Their only crime is that they’ve stood up to the violence that has been inflicted on Adivasis and on the weaker sections of the society.”

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