Reddy had reached the airport to board a scheduled flight to Hyderabad. As he was nearing the VIP lounge, a man identified by police as Srinivas, a worker at the food concession in the airport, approached Reddy to offer him a cup of coffee, according to Malla Vijay Prasad, the president of the YSRCP in Visakhapatnam.
“Srinivas suddenly whipped out a blade that is normally used during rooster fights and lunged at Reddy. He clearly wanted to stab Reddy in the neck, but Reddy deflected the blade with his hand, and suffered an injury on his shoulder. Srinivas was overpowered by YSRCP workers, and handed over to the police at the airport,” Vijay Prasad, who was with Reddy at the time, told ToI. Srinivas has been detained by the police.
Claiming that the alleged attack on Reddy was an attempt to “murder democracy”, Vijay Prasad said that Reddy was administered first aid at the airport. “Reddy boarded his flight to Hyderabad, and will be consulting a doctor about his injury when he lands there,” he said.
Vijay Prasad, a former MLA from Visakhapatnam, claimed that the concession stand in the airport belonged to Harshvardhan, a member of the Telugu Desam Party. He tried to link Srinivas’ attack to the TDP, given the alleged political affiliation of the owner of the concession.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has condemned the attack and questioned that how can person with knife managed to reach so close to a VIP.
I strongly condemn the cowardly attack on @ysjagan this is a major security lapse which must be probed… https://t.co/gU9jeKX0tt
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) 1540454731000
G. Prakash Reddy, director of Visakhapatnam International Airport, declined to comment on the incident. “The police are still here at the airport, so I will not be able to comment at this time,” Reddy said.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2ArqZxX
