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Naxalites kill Madhya Pradesh minister

Neeraj Mishra in Bhopal

In a what is being seen as a retaliatory action, banned People's War Group today pulled off a daring act by killing Madhya Pradesh's transport minister Likhiram Kawre, 43 in his native village Sonepuri, 40 km from Balaghat.

PWG posters left behind with his body proclaim that the crime was ''a punishment for the killing of PWG top brass - Shyam, Murli, Mahesh and Arun early this month.''.

The four had been arrested in Bangalore and later killed in an encounter in Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh on December 1. PWG had claimed the encounter was fake.

Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, Chief Secretary K S Sharma, Director General of Police S C Tripathi and Additional Director General (intelligence) A N Singh have rushed to the spot.

Kawre was visiting his village in connection with the elections to some local bodies. He had left his gunman at Kirnapur before proceeding to Sonepuri for a night halt at his house.

DIG (intelligence) Surendra Singh said: ''Kawre was called out of his house at around 11 pm by someone who we assume was known to him. His body was found early in the morning with his throat punctured with a sharp weapon and his hands tied behind with a nylon rope, PWG's trade mark method of killing people.''

The body was found in the courtyard in front of the house by Kawre's nephew Munna who stays in the same house with his father and mother. Police have ruled out kidnapping for the moment and are concentrating on the theory that Kawre's movements had been carefully observed.

Police suspect the involvement of Malajkhand Dalam in the killing.

A senior officer of the state police said that each dalam is probably trying to outdo the other in making news following the success of Andhra police. ''The revenge mania -- if that's what it is -- may grow and we will have to rethink our strategy in handling Naxalites,'' said Additional Secretay (home) Vivek Johri.

Kawre had been elected to the state assembly three times since 1990. He had become a state minister in '93 and had been taken in as cabinet minister last December.

Born on September 15, 1957 Kawre was a post-graduate and had a good command over English, Hindi and Marathi languages. Chief minister Digvijay Singh has termed it as a ''personal loss'' and has cancelled the light and sound programme in Khajuraho. Three days' mourning has been announced in the state.

UNI

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