The Telangana Police’s Greyhounds swooped on a Naxal camp in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district in an early morning operation on Friday killing at least 10 Maoists, including six women. A personnel of the elite force, too, lost his life in the operation which took place at around 6.30 am, officials said.
Police suspect there could be senior cadre members among the ultras killed. Acting on an intelligence report, the personnel of Greyhounds went 35 km into neighbouring Chhattisgarh and launched an operation on the Maoist camp, they said.
“Screening of the bodies is going on to identify the deceased,” Ambar Kishor Jha, Superintendent of Police of Telangana’s Bhadradri Kothagudem district, said.
“Susheel Kumar, a junior commando of the Greyhounds, lost his life,” he added.
The Greyhounds, an anti-Naxal force, swooped on the camp as part of a joint operation with the Chhattisgarh Police.
A senior official of the district police said the bodies of ultras were being shifted to Bhadrachalam Area Hospital.
An AK-47 has been recovered from the encounter site. It is a normal practise with Maoists to give hi-tech assault rifles to senior cadre members, officials said.
The exchange of fire took place between a team of Greyhounds and rebels in a forest near Pujari Kanker under Pamed police station area, about 500 km from Raipur, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg said.
Security forces from Telangana and Chhattisgarh had launched the counter-insurgency operation in the forest on the inter-state border based on inputs about a gathering of a large group of ultras, he said, adding that the search operation was still underway.
Greyhounds is a special force of the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which undertakes operations against Naxals.
Meanwhile, Varavara Rao, a member of the Revolutionary Writers’ Association, raised doubts over the genuineness of the gunfight and claimed it was “fake”.
He said the Association has moved a “lunch motion” petition in the Hyderabad High Court seeking direction to the police to follow Supreme Court guidelines related to encounters.
He demanded that the bodies of the deceased Maoists be photographed at the site of the incident and shifted to Warangal or Hyderabad for postmortem examination by forensic experts.
A lunch motion petition is filed in case of an emergency and the case is heard the very same day after lunch.
—with Agency inputs
ANTI-NAXAL OP
- Special forces from Telangana and Chhattisgarh launched a counter-insurgency operation in Pujari Kanker forests on the border on Friday morning
- Arms and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site; police were still scouring the area for any remaining suspect
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "NAXALS-Security personnel")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}