Two Maoists killed in Mulugu

Joint patrolling party comes under fire from squad of armed Maoists leading to an exchange of fire

Two unidentified Maoists were killed in an ‘exchange of fire’ with the police in Mulugu district on Sunday afternoon, police said.

The face-off took place at Musalammagutta forest area under Mangapeta police station limits in the tribal-dominated district. This is the fifth such encounter in recent months. The incident escalated tension in the restive forest region straddling the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border. It comes more than a week after ultras stabbed to death TRS party activist 48-year-old M. Bheemeshwara Rao in Bodhapuram village in the Agency mandal of Venkatapuram in the same district on October 10.

Acting on specific information about the movement of Maoist action teams, a special party police team along with the Greyhounds forces launched a combing operation in Musalammagutta forest area on Sunday, police sources said. The joint patrolling party came under fire from a squad of armed Maoists that led to an exchange of fire, police added. During a search after the exchange of fire, the police found two bodies of unidentified Maoist male cadres at the scene of ‘exchange of fire’.

The CPI (Maoists) suffered a series of setbacks while attempting to gain foothold in Agency areas of Telangana in the recent past. As many as eight of its cadres were killed in four separate “encounters” — six in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district and two in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district — since September first week. The rebels observed a bandh in Bhadrachalam Agency on September 28 in protest against what they termed as “fake encounter killings” of its cadres.

The spurt in Maoist activities in Agency areas prompted the top brass of the State police to hold a high-level coordination meeting on joint anti-Maoist strategy with their counterparts of Chhattisgarh and senior officials of the CRPF in Venkatapuram in the border district of Mulugu on October 4.

The Venkatapuram police on Saturday arrested a Maoist militia member, who was allegedly involved in the recent murder of TRS cadre Bheemeshwara Rao, at Kondapuram village and seized some explosive materials from his possession.