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Updated: Jul 18, 2019 18:31 IST

Two tribals were shot dead and another beaten up brutally by Maoists in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district in the wee hours of Thursday, police said

The incident took place at Veeravaram village of Chintapalli block on the Andhra-Odisha border. The deceased, who were branded by the Maoists as police informers, were identified as Emilli Satti Babu (40) and Pangi Raja Rao (43). Another tribal – Pangi Linga, who was beaten up indiscriminately, was shifted to the Chintapalli health centre.

The police said around 12-15 armed Maoists came to the village after midnight and dragged Satti Babu, Raja Rao and Linga out of their beds.

“They first beat up the three tribals branding them as police informers and then gunned two of them down. Linga repeatedly pleaded with them to spare him. They beat him black and blue with sticks and left him at his house,” Annaram sub-inspector Raghu Varma said.

The Maoists left a note at the village saying that they were compelled to kill the two tribals as they were responsible for killing of two of their colleagues – Sharat and Ganapathi— in the past. “The police informers should accept their mistakes and lead a normal life,” the note said.

Maoist leaders Sharat and Ganapathi were lynched by a mob in Veeravaram village when they killed a tribal priest in October 2014. Since then, the Maoists have been waiting for taking revenge on the tribals, police said.

Last week, Maoists abducted and killed Nalluri Srinivasa Rao, a mandal parishad territorial constituency member of TRS, in Kishataram forests near the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border.