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People's War apologises for Andhra Pradesh bus blast

They said that they had targeted the bus thinking that it was carrying policemen, not civilians. Fourteen policemen also lost their lives in the blast.

"The incident was the result of a miscalculation that the state roadways bus was carrying police personnel," the Naxalite outfit said.

"We seek pardon from the families of the victims. It is an unforgettable and sad event in the history of the revolutionary movement," a spokesman of the People's War North Telangana Special Zone Committee, M Bhaskar, said in a handwritten letter faxed to some vernacular dailies in Warangal.

The People's War, however, warned people against travelling with policemen as they might be used as 'human shields' by the police in combing operations.

"We thought that the bus was carrying policemen and targeted it. We had information that a police party was returning from Ilapur (where five Naxalites were killed over the weekend in a police encounter) with the bodies of our comrades," the letter said.

This is the second instance of a major 'military blunder' in the blood-soaked history of the Naxalite movement, for which the outfit has tendered a public apology. In 1990, the People's War rebels had burnt down a bogie of Kakatiya Express in Warangal district killing 40 passengers.

Subsequently, it had apologised for the incident saying it was a mistake.

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