Attempts by the outlawed naxalite organisation — CPI Maoist — to stage a comeback to the newly-formed State of Telangana was thwarted with the police killing two of their senior squad members in Warangal district in an encounter on Tuesday morning.
Warangal district Superintendent of Police Amber Kishore Jha said that one male and a female Maoist were killed in an exchange of fire which continued for more than five hours. “The search operation is still on in the area”, he said.
It is a first major encounter in Warangal district in nearly a decade as the Maoists were pushed out of the region by a massive operation launched by the then YS Rajasekhar Reddy government in 2005.
Tuesday’s incident occurred in Tadwai mandal forest area near Vengalapur village during the early hours when the anti-naxalite Greyhound Force was combing. “During the combing operation they came face to face with the Maoists. When asked to surrender, the Maoists opened fire and police returned the fire killing two of them”, Jha said. Police have seized five weapons and five kit bags from the scene of the encounter.
Police and the Greyhounds were put on a high alert in the surrounding areas as many members of Khammam-Karimnagr-Warangal division squad were involved in the encounter and they tried to escape the police dragnet by triggering a landmine blast.
The SP said that the efforts were to identify the two slain Maoists. Activities of Maoists in Telangana districts bordering Chattisgarh have gone up in the recent weeks and their movement was being reported in parts of Warangal district for the last two months.
Only yesterday the armed Maoists had blasted a JCB in Mullampally village under Mulug mandal of the district. Earlier they had also put up posters threatening the Telangana Assembly speaker Madhusudhana Chary. Maoists posters had also appeared in Moggulapally village of Chityala mandal three weeks ago creating a stir in the district.
Warangal is part of northern Telangana region which was in the grip of the Maoists terror for decades before the left wing extremists were uprooted about a decade back.
Ever since the formation of Telangana state in June last year, intelligence and security agencies have been warning that the Maoists may take advantage of the transitory situation and reorganize themselves in Telangana region by infiltrating from neighboring states of Chattisgarh and Odisha.
Resumption of Maoists activities including holding Peopole’s Court and putting up posters have also been reported from other districts including Khammam, Karimnagar and Adilabad.