VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed near Raghavaiah park even as the city police and quick response teams were deployed in large number to avoid untoward incidents as State civil liberties members, rights activists and Malkangiri Encounter Fact-finding Committee members from five states organised a one-day workshop at M B Bhavan here on Saturday.
Activists claimed that the Malkangiri incident was a fake encounter and denied allegations by the state police department that Maoists were supporting ganja cultivation under Andhra-Odisha-Border (AOB) and north Andhra region.
However, the activists' claims were shot down by the family members of police personnel who were killed in the encounter and relatives of those murdered for being police informers by ultras.
The distraught kin of the deceased cops staged a protest against the one-day workshop at M B Bhavan and asked why activists weren’t bothered about the human rights of policemen. “My son joined the police department as a constable in 2003. The fifth day after he joined he was killed by ultras while he was on bundobust duty near Sarangapalli of Guntur district,” said G Venkat Reddy, a farmer and father of G Sambasiva Reddy, who was killed by Maoists.
However, coordinator for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Civil Liberties Committee, Prof S Seshaiah said family members of police martyrs should pressure the government to bring changes in policy as the state is responsible for their loss.