: Two Maoists were killed in an exchange of fire with a combing party, comprising men from the Greyhounds and Special Party of the district police, near Revulakota village in Koyyuru mandal under Mampa police station limits on Sunday afternoon.
There was no casualty on the police side.
The exchange of fire occurred about 140 km from the Koyyuru headquarters and as per reports, both the slain Maoists were men and were from the Galikonda area committee.
According to Superintendent of Police Koya Praveen, the Maoists were spotted by the police party. Sources said there were about 10 to 12 of them and the rest retreated under the cover of fire.
Police recovered two 12 bore single barrel guns, some cartridges and two kit bags containing two mobile phones, uniforms and Maoist literature.
As part of the area domination exercise due to the recently held high-profile events such as the CII Partnership Summit and the International Fleet Review (IFR) in Visakhapatnam, the areas were screened and there have been no reports of sighting of Maoists, in the last one month.
Sources in the police say members of the Galikonda dalam would have moved into the area or were trying to make their way into parts of G.K. Veedhi and Koyyuru to incite the locals on the bauxite mining issue.
The exchange of fire came just three days after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh held consultations with top officials of AP police, CRPF and BSF, here and at Koraput on measures to be taken to curb Maoists.
This was also the second exchange of fire in two months. On December 11 last, an exchange of fire took place between a group of Maoists from Odisha and police in the Iragayi forest area in Araku Valley mandal while the former was returning after participating in party's PLGA week programme in the Visakha Agency, but no casualty was reported.
Last year witnessed a few exchanges of fire between the Maoists and the police forces. In the June encounter in Munchingput mandal, one Maoist was killed.
There were about 10 to 12 Maoists and the rest retreated under the cover of fire
