Reddy, 51, a native of Basaguda village in Bijapur district of south Chhattisgarh, was attacked by a group of assailants with sharp weapons in the broad daylight, as he was returning from the Basaguda weekly market. Reddy was sent to the Bijapur hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. Bijapur district is now a stronghold of the Maoist Naxalite insurgency, and indepenent journalists like Reddy have found themselves caught between both sides in the conflict. Reddy, committed to covering local rural issued, had for months received threats from the ultra-left outfits, who were irritated by his coverage of their abuses. Yet he was also harassed by the police as a suspected Maoist sympathizer.
Reddy's slaying was the second killing of a journalist by Maoists in Chhattisgarh this year. In February, the killing of Nemichand Jain [11], 43, in Sukma, another district within the state's "Red Corridor," led to an outrage—finally prompting the Maoists to issue an apology for the cirme. In the two previous years, journalists Sushil Pathak and Umesh Rajput were also slain in the state. Journalists' organizations charge that the Chhattisgarh government has done little to resolve the cases and to punish the culprits.
NJ Thakuria for World War 4 Report
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