Maoists warn Nagender over T strike

The outlawed Maoists on Friday threatened Labour Minister Danam Nagender of dire consequences if he tries to foil general strike of Telangana employees.

The CPI (Maoist) North Telangana Special Zonal Committee spokesperson Jagan asked Nagender to stop making anti-Telangana comments or face serious consequences. In a message sent to some journalists through SMS on Friday, Jagan asked the Labour Minister to be cautious in giving statements do not harass the striking employees by invoking ESMA.

The Maoists’ message said the general strike of employees would continue until the Centre introduces Telangana bill in the parliament.  According to the message, the CPI (Maoist) North Telangana Special Zonal Committee has expressed total solidarity with the on-going Telangana agitation.

However, the veracity of the SMS message is not yet confirmed. It is quite unusual for the Maoists to send threats using SMSs, although on some occasion a few Maoists leaders have communicated with the media over mobile phones. Normally, the Maoists send a press release through fax to the media.

Although the State police have remained silent about the threat, the intelligence department has reportedly been asked to check the veracity of the message.