Left leaders get death threats

New Delhi: Four top Communist leaders yesterday received death threats by mail for blocking the India-US civil nuclear deal and for allegedly "harassing" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury and the Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja got identical copies of the letter in flawed English, sources in both groups said.

"May God bless this country to eliminate these r****** by any means. People are fed up with you. Enough is enough," read the letter, written by Vinay Kateri from Mumbai.

Confirming that he had received the letter, Raja said, "These kind of things keep happening in politics. We do not take it seriously."

A CPM source said Karat, too, had got the hand-written letter along with a computer printout.

Accusing the Left leaders of "hijacking the national interests", the letter asked the Communists, who are bitterly opposed to the nuclear deal, not to behave like "terrorists".

"Do not hold this country for ransom. Do not behave like terrorists," the letter said. It said the Communists were "suffering from blood cancer, namely anti-American virus".