Two TDP leaders hacked to death

HYDERABAD - Two leaders of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), who were brothers, were hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district in a case of fational killings, police said Saturday.

Vishwanath Reddy and Maheshwar Reddy, both brothers and local leaders of the TDP, were murdered late Friday in Nakkaladinne in Kadapa. A woman was also injured in the attack.

Some unidentified people, who came in a car, barged into the house of the two brothers after midnight and attacked them with sickles and other sharp-edged weapons, an official said.

Police suspect it to be case of factional killings. Eight people of a rival faction have been booked and searches are on to find them, the official said.

Kadapa is a part of Rayalaseema region, notorious for factional killings. The factions fighting for domination in villages kill their rivals mercilessly. The factions are supported either by the Congress or by TDP.