An exchange of fire took place between police and a band of Maoists in the forest between Devapur and Gundala villages in Kasipet mandal of Adilabad district on Thursday. No casualties were reported from either side. Police recovered nine kit bags, Maoist literature, medicines, utensils and food from the scene.
According to Bellampalli Additional Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Bhushan, police were on the trail of the Naxals who escaped the net in the Mangi forest area. Combing operations would continue for two or three more days, he said. Mr. Bhushan said the extremists opened fire on the police party apparently after spotting it. “We had increased combing in the Mangi forest after receiving information of movement of a dalam led by Divisional Committee Secretary Bandi Prakash. We will eventually flush them out,” he said.
Another ‘memorial’Khammam Staff Reporter adds: Maoists sprang a surprise again by erecting a makeshift martyrs’ memorial along the Bhadrachalam-Chintur highway near Bandirevu in the small hours of the day. The ‘memorial’, erected on bamboo sticks, had posters strung in the name of the Sabari Area Committee.
A police officer of Bhadrachalam, however, said militia members had pasted a few posters near Bandirevu. The incident comes close on the heels of erection of a similar makeshift memorial by Maoists near Mallampeta in Chintur mandal on Tuesday in connection with the ongoing “Martyrs Memorial Week.”
