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Their  accounts suggest that the police in Andhra Pradesh staged the killing of 20 alleged red sanders smugglers last week.

 

The men claim that at least 12 of those shot dead were pulled off a bus by policemen and arrested hours before the alleged encounter.

According to the  Andhra Pradesh, those killed were notorious smugglers of red sandalwood  and were killed after they attacked a police team. 

 

All the men were from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

The two witnesses claim they survived because they were not among the villagers taken away by the Andhra police.

Andhra Pradesh forest minister B Gopala Krishna Reddy has said there is evidence that those  who were killed were "habitual offenders" in trading red sandalwood illegally.