Date:09/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070960500600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Launch salvage complete

G. Narasimha Rao

8 more bodies recovered; five0 constables still missing

End of operation: Weapons that were retrieved from the ill-fated launch on Tuesday.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Ten days after it sank in the Chitrakonda (Balimela) reservoir in Orissa near the Andhra Pradesh border following an attack by the CPI (Maoist), the launch that carried 66 Greyhounds constables, civil police officers and crew, was brought to the shore on Tuesday.

Bodies of a Reserve Inspector, a Reserve SI and six more Greyhounds constables were recovered. With this the total number of personnel who died in the incident went up to 33 and five Greyhounds constables are still missing. Twenty-eight survived the June 29 attack and among them, some are being treated for injuries in a corporate hospital here.

The launch which was brought up to a few metres from water level on Monday, was pulled to the shore on Tuesday morning. The salvage team then removed five bodies from the cabin window, while three other bodies were recovered from the water. Visakhapatnam Superintendent of Police Akun Sabharwal said 14 weapons of different varieties were also recovered. The bodies were quickly put in wooden boxes and sent to the Andhra Medical College mortuary in KGH premises here by road.