Woman among 4 naxals killed in encounter

By N. Rahul

SARASANAPALLE (Warangal Dt.), NOV.17 Four Naxalites of the People's War Group, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with the police on the fringes of the forest in this village in Kothaguda mandal, 35 km from Narsampet, on Saturday morning.

The police have identified three of the bodies as those of Pindi Yellaiah alias Ashok, a deputy commander of Dharmasagar Local Guerilla Squad (LGS) of the PWG, Rajitha alias Padma and Sambaiah alias Ramesh, both members of Pandava LGS. Attempts were on to identify the fourth body with the help of surrendered extremists who were summoned. The police recovered four weapons - a .303 rifle, a stengun and two DBBL guns - three tiffin box bombs and about 50 rounds of ammunition.

The Additional SP, Mr. Y.Nagi Reddy, called it a chance encounter after one of several anti-naxalite squads deployed in the area, combed the area throughout the night and halted at a water point to advance into the forest when they noticed the naxalites emerging from the forest side. Both sides exchanged fire. The remaining five naxalites escaped into the forest.

The scene of the encounter was close to the bushes of recently harvested paddy. One has to walk four km from Ottai village to reach the scene of the encounter. A tribal of the Thanda in Ottai, Maloth Sitaram, who reached his field to begin threshing of paddy, heard gun fire, but he thought it was the sound of children firing leftover crackers. He soon saw five extremists wearing olive green uniforms rushing into the forest. Soon, a Road Transport Corporation bus and a lorry with police reinforcements came to the village and headed for the spot. Police took Sitaram and a dozen other Lambadas to the scene of the encounter to stand guard.

Mr. Nagi Reddy said there was continuous combing of the area for PWG extremists since the killing of two Mandal Parishad Presidents belonging to Telugu Desam recently.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police at Narsampet, Mr. A.S.C.Wesley, said that this was the second major encounter to in this village.

Meanwhile, police teams exchanged fire with a team of the People's Guerrilla Army (PGA) in the thick forest areas of Mulugu in Warangal around 5.30 p.m.

The PGA members managed to escape the police onslaught while leaving two revolvers and some kit bags. The police teams found blood stains leading to conclusion that some naxalites could have been injured in the firing.

Top naxal leader injured

Our Staff Reporter in Nizamabad writes: Three naxals, including the Squad area committee secretary of the Peddapalli are, Sreenu, was injured in a shootout between the PWG dalam members in Kistampet village under Kalwa Srirampur police station limits of Karimnagar district.

The bizarre incident occurred when the Peddapalli LGS member, Pallela Tirumalesh, and five other dalam members fired at each other. The reason for the shootout is not known, but reports reaching the Karimnagar police said that three dalam members sustained bleeding injuries. The Karimnagar SP, Dr. R.S.Praveen Kumar, when contacted on the telephone from Nizamabad, confirmed the shootout.

Pallela Tirumalesh, carrying an SLR and an 8 mm revolver, later came to the Kalwa Srirampur police station and surrendered before the local SI. A police party led by the Kalwa Srirampur SI, which rushed to the village, found five empty cartridges and a pool of blood indicating that at least a couple of naxals had sustained bleeding injuries. However, Tirumalesh managed to escape unhurt with the weapons and rushed to the police station.

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