Police fire at fleeing dacoits

By Our Staff Reporter

NIZAMABAD, Dec 5.

The Banswada police opened 10 rounds of fire at a gang of dacoits, who were fleeing after looting houses in Nemli village under Birkur police station limits, about 60 km from here in the early hours of today. But none were injured in the shoot out.

According to reports, the Banswada Circle Inspector received information from the residents of Ankol camp that a gang of dacoits were trying to break into houses. The dacoits, who made vain bid to loot houses in Ankol camp fled towards Nemli village, when challenged by the villagers. In Nemli, they raided some houses and relieved the inmates of gold and cash, when the Banswada CI and another team consisting of Birkur SI, reached the place.

The dacoits, on seeing the police started fleeing into the nearby sugarcane fields. The police party gave them a hot chase and finally opened 10 rounds of fire at the dacoits, who, however, managed to escape. Only yesterday, dacoits struck terror in Desaipet and Banswada town by looting two houses and injuring the inmates.

The Superintendent of police, Dr. Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, told The Hindu on Tuesday that in view of the rise in dacoities and highway robberies, intensive patrolling had been launched. He said the sudden spurt in dacoities, coincided with the onset of the sugarcane crushing season, which witnesses largescale migration of labourers to the district. He said review of last few years' incidents revealed the involvement of migrant labourers, who came for sugarcane cutting.

Several gangs involved in dacoities were arrested and most of them turned out to be migrant labourers from neighbouring Maharasthra and Karnataka and the Narayankhed area of Medak district.

He said village defence squads had been constituted in many parts of the district to carry out night patrolling. Apart from this intensive patrolling had been launched by respective SI of each police station. Vehicle checking was also being carried out on highways.

The SP said though there was a decline in highway robberies, the police were not taking any chances. Last month, dacoits had looted an Hyderabad-bound RTC bus in the Chandrayanpalli forest area under Dichpalli police station. After the incident, the police had began highway patrolling on NH -7 and NH -16. The stretch of NH-7 from Pochampad to Bhikanoor, covering a distance of 120 km, had been divided into several sections. The SIs of Balkonda, Armoor, Jakranpalli, Dichpalli, Sadashivnagar, Kamareddy and Bhikanoor were deputed to do highway patrolling on this route, he added. Another stretch from Armoor to Nizamabad was also covered by highway patrol team. A team of policemen was covering a distance of 18 km from Armoor to Makloor crossroads.

Dr. Ayyanar said instructions had been issued to police personnel to man all bus stations and carry out video recording of departure of all bus services and also bus stations. In the case of long-distance services, armed escort was being given to allow movement of RTC buses in convoys towards Hyderabad on NH - 7 from Dichpalli. Similarly, armed escort is also given to other important routes, which are prone to dacoities.

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