Maoist rebels kidnapped and killed two teenagers in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after branding them police agents, officials said yesterday. The teenagers, Nagesh, 15, and Yelisha, 13, were among five minors kidnapped by guerrillas on Friday from a village in Prakasam district, 270 km south of Hyderabad. They were shot dead by rebels who suspected the boys of passing information on the Maoists to police, officers said, adding that it was the first time that children in the state had been targeted in this way. Singa Prasad, a leader of a local Maoist committee, claimed responsibility for the killings of the children in a statement which was left with the dead bodies. One of the kidnapped children was released on Sunday and returned home with news of the killings.
| This is why Maoists need to be killed. |