Hyderabad: In the biggest encounter in several years in Telangana, police have gunned down eight left-wing extremists in the forest area of Bhadradari Kottagudem district on Thursday morning, police said.
District Superintendent of Police Amber Kishore said that the incident occurred under the Boda police station limit of Tekupally mandal, about 250km east of Hyderabad. Those killed were identified as members of the CPIML-Chandrapulla Reddy group. The organisation is different from the major left-wing guerrilla organisation CPI-Maoist involved in violent insurgency in several states of India, but which has been lying low in Telangana for more than a decade.
“On the receipt of information of a meeting of an armed group, police from four police stations surrounded the forest area. When the attempts to escape failed, the extremists opened fire and in retaliatory firing by the police six members of the group were killed”, the SP said.
Police seized a large cache of arms including a self loading rifle, two 8mm rifles and two SBBL rifles and eight kit bags. Four of those killed identified as Yeti Kumar alias Rakhi, E Naresh alias Sudarshan, Azad and Madhu, police said.
Police officials said that the extremists were indulging in large-scale extortion from contractors and terrorising the local people.
Left-wing extremists of different groups have been trying to regroup and revive their activities in the region ever since the formation of the Telangana state in June 2014. However, the intense combing operation by the elite Greyhound and the police force have foiled many such attempts, officials said.
Yadadri (earlier part of Khammam district) borders Chattisgarh, one of the worst affected states by the left-wing violence.
