Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday extended the ban on CPI-Maoist and seven of its frontal organisations for a further period of one year. The group known as Peoples War Group (PWG) was first banned in 1991.
The state cabinet, which met in Hyderabad on Wednesday, took the decision to extend the ban on Maoist outfits, under the Andhra Pradesh Public Security Act, in view of the continuing Maoist violence in the state.
Briefing newsmen after the cabinet meeting, Information and Public Relations Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy said the ban would be extended till August 16, 2008 on CPI-Maoist and its frontal organisations, namely, Radical Youth League (RYL), Rythu Coolie Sangham (RCS), Radical Students Union (RSU), Singareni Karmika Samakhya (Sikasa), Viplava Karmika Samakhya (Vikasa) and All India Revolutionary Students Federation (AIRSF).
The ban on CPI-Maoist and frontal organisations was relaxed in 2004 but was re-imposed on August 17, 2005, following the killing of then Congress MLA Chittem Narsi Reddy and nine others by a Maoist action team at Narayanpet in Mahbubnagar district on Independence Day.
The ban came nine months after the peace talks between the Maoists and the state government began in October 2004.