Maoist top rung bleeds in encounter

- Nine rebels of Andhra zonal command killed, claim cops

OUR BUREAU & PTI

April 16: The entire top rung of a Maoist zonal command active in Andhra Pradesh was wiped out when nine rebels were killed today in one of the few major breakthroughs attributed to unmanned surveillance planes.

The encounter unfolded in a Chhattisgarh jungle near the Andhra border and is being described as the biggest since a 2010 gun battle in the same belt killed eight rebels.

The operation was planned by the Greyhounds, Andhra's elite rebel-fighting squad, and was executed in co-ordination with Chhattisgarh police and the CRPF. The dead included top zonal leader Marri Ravi alias Sudhakar and Pushpaka, who is believed to be the wife of a zonal commander.

The nine bodies have been found, some at the encounter spot and others scattered a few kilometres away, suggesting some of the Maoists injured in the police firing could have tried to flee and died on the way.

The bodies were flown to Bhadrachalam in Andhra. Officials identified them and confirmed that the Maoists were in the top rungs of the Khammam-Karimnagar-Warangal (KKW) special zonal committee of the CPI (Maoist).

The presence of so many rebels at a single spot, which is in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, led the police to believe a meeting or convention was underway when the forces struck.

"We have no idea how many escaped but it appears that there were at least 30-odd men and women cadres," said Ranganath, the superintendent of police of Khammam, the Andhra district bordering the encounter spot.

Among the top leaders who are believed to have escaped are Papa Rao and Ramanna, Chhattisgarh DIG Deepanshu Kabra said.

Chhattisgarh IG (Bastar range) Himanshu Gupta said that after a tip-off about the presence of the rebels in Puarti village, a search was launched by the Greyhounds-led team early this morning. "On spotting the forces, the rebels opened fire and in the retaliatory action, nine rebels were killed and several others injured," Gupta said. A senior CRPF official told the agency in Delhi that 10 guerrillas were killed.

Radical literature, mobile phones and weapons, including .303 rifles, carbines and automatic Insas rifles were seized from the spot. Combing operations are still on.

Andhra officers said they could zero in on the Maoist meeting venues with satellite images from unmanned aerial vehicles that have been deployed for surveillance on the Maoists in the jungles of Andhra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

"We got some information from tribal villagers on the movement of Maoists and the satellite images helped pinpoint their hideout," an Andhra officer said.

In February this year, the chopper division of a unified command for anti-Maoist operations started functioning in Andhra's Karimnagar.

The division, set up after the Union home ministry's approval, helps monitor operations in the rebel-infested districts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra that shares borders with the three other states.

The areas covered include Dandakaranya, an inhospitable hilly and forested stretch that is located not far from the conjunction of the four states.

Andhra police chief V. Dinesh Reddy, who launched the chopper division at Mahadevpur in Karimnagar, had said the unit would help improve combing operations, especially in the aftermath of attacks on forces and installations.

The chopper vigils were also expected to bring down the incidents of Maoists entering Andhra from neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Reddy said.

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