Eight naxalites among 10 killed

By V. Geetanath

MALL (Nalgonda Dist), JUNE 19. In yet another major blow to the naxalite movement in south Telangana districts, eight naxalites, including three women, were shot dead in a fierce gun battle in the hillocks near Marrigudem village of Nalgonda district, about 60 km from here, on Tuesday morning. A commando of the Grey Hounds and a one-year- old infant, believed to be daughter of a woman militant, were also killed in the exchange of fire that lasted over seven hours.

Among the slain naxalites was the People's War Group (PWG) Nalgonda District Committee secretary, Diwakar alias Dharmanna, believed to be a mastermind behind the killing of Panchayat Raj Minister A. Madhava Reddy two years ago. The police recovered a Chinese made AK-47 assault rifle usually carried by Dharmanna and a carbine, which was snatched from a constable who was killed in a landmine blast in Arutla village of Rangareddy district on June 9. Another pistol and a tapancha were also recovered.

The naxalites, believed to be members of the Krishnapatti and Rachakonda dalams, were stated to have camped in the long range of hillocks, barely 6 km from Mall, a town situated on the highway leading to Nagarjunasagar.

The police which got wind of the naxalite movement in the hillocks had spread out and began combing operations from Monday night onwards.

Sources said four combing teams consisting of the Grey Hounds personnel and district police fanned out in the hillocks. One of the teams noticed smoke emanating from top of a hillock and surrounded it immediately. The firing began around 7.00 a.m. and continued till around 2.00 p.m.

The naxalites were well entrenched in a strategically located place but since the surprise element was on the side of the police who surrounded the hillock, there were heavy casualties on the naxalite side, police officers said.

The naxalites used many hand grenades to attack the police teams but the superior fire power and the way police teams took up positions must have made them a futile exercise in the defence of naxalites.

An advance scout of a police combing team, Bheemudu fell to naxalite bullets. ``The naxalites must have had at least two layers of security. The hillocks provide some good cover for them. But the police teams managed to surprise the naxals,'' the DGP, Mr. H. J. Dora, told ``The Hindu.''

The police officers do not rule out the possibility of some more naxalites managing to escape from the hillock since the staccato gunfire from the naxalite side was more to provide cover fire to enable their comrades to escape.

The district SP, Mr. Shivdhar Reddy, rushed to the spot to supervise the operation which created a sensation in south Telangana districts. It was barely ten days ago that the Nalgonda police exchanged fire with the Kanagal squad and killed all the six naxalites of the underground dalam. Today's exchange of fire leading to death of eight naxalites and seizure of two automatic weapons is being interpreted as a major blow to the extremist movement in south Telangana districts.

The gun battle comes as a morale booster for the embattled police force in the State as the PWG has been unleashing a reign of terror in Telangana districts for the last two months aiming at `single targets' among police forces, political leaders and suspected informants.

It was only three days ago, the PWG shot dead 10 persons, six of them members of the People's Guerrilla Army in the border areas of Karimnagar and Nizamabad district.

Caption: A woman naxalite lies dead with her child atop the hillock near Marrigudem (Mall Road) in Nalgonda on Tuesday after an encounter which killed eight naxals, a policeman and an infant. - Photo: P. V. Sivakumar.

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