Andhra Pradesh BJP chief on terror hit list

The Andhra Pradesh police on Sunday claimed that if the terror gang busted by the Karnataka police had executed its plan, it would have created a havoc during the ensuing Ganesha festival.
The AP police suspect that the terror gang had planned to kill BJP legislator and state party president G Kishan Reddy and two Telugu Desam Party and one BJP corporators to create mayhem during the festival. This was revealed by Obaidur Rehman, a Hyderabadi student arrested by the Karnataka police from Chandrayangutta locality.
Besides Kishan Reddy, three GHMC corporators — Raja Singh and Singireddy Srinivas Reddy of Mangalhat and Saidabad divisions (TDP) and K Sahadev Yadav of Kurmaguda division (BJP) — were on the hit list. The arrested terror suspects told the Bangalore police that a special team from Karnataka was supposed to attack the corporators in Hyderabad.
It is believed that the suspects did a recce of Reddy’s house in Saidabad a few months ago and also followed his movements closely, sources said. However, this was not the first time that recce was conducted by terror groups to eliminate Kishan Reddy.
The gang wanted to kill the four leaders because of their right wing connections. The gang believed that the four leaders were fomenting religious hatred targeting Muslims in the communally sensitive Saidabad and surrounding localities. Singh, who runs a local religious TV channel and Yadav, were the suspects in communal clashes that broke during Hanuman Jayanti in the old city in April.
The violent clashes between two communities in Kurmaguda following desecration of religious places led to enforcement of curfew in Saidadad and Madannapet station areas, where several houses of minorities were targeted. Eventually, four Hindus were arrested on charges of desecrating a temple with an intention to trigger communal violence.