Two important Maoist leaders shot in encounter

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, September 20 

The Telangana Police gunned down two suspected Maoists in an alleged encounter at the Kadamba forest near Kagaznagar in Telangana’s Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

This is the third encounter in less than a month between the outlawed CPI (Maoist) party and state police.  

According to sources, the area is still being scanned for any more hiding Maoists and the operation is being supervised by Asifabad in-charge Superintendent of Police (SP) and Ramagundam Commissioner of Police Sathyanarayana along with other senior officials.  

The SP told media persons that led by Mailarapu Adellu alias Bhaskar from the Mancherial- Asifabad Divisional Committee of the CPI (Maoist) some people had been moving around the area and had escaped the police three times in the last five days. 

“On the evening of September 18 Maoists were spotted in the fields but forces had restrained themselves as there were children and other locals around. So the police tried to chase them after which eight Greyhounds personnel and six special party teams carried out combing operations” 

The group led by Bhaskar was spotted and they were asked to surrender, but the Maoists fired back and in the exchange of fire that took place for over an hour, two persons died. But their bodies were only found later in the morning during a search at the scene.  

One deceased was identified as Chukkalu, a core member of the Mancherial-Asifabad action team, hailing from Chhattisgarh, while the other is still unidentified. 

This is the third exchange of fire incident in northern Telangana in less than a month. The police also recovered two weapons and revolutionary literature from the spot of the encounter.  

The Telangana Police had also alerted the police in neighbouring Maharashtra so that an escape into the neighbouring state by the Maoists could be foiled. Telangana DGP Mahendar Reddy had visited the area earlier this month to assess the situation after an increase in Maoist activity. 

Police said about 400 police personnel from various wings of the force including Greyhounds that specialise in anti-Maoist operations were involved in the operation in the forests and around Chilatiguda village of Asifabad mandal.