The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 6 policemen escape landmine blast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 05, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

6 policemen escape landmine blast

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, FEB. 4. Six police personnel escaped with minor injuries when naxalites triggered a landmine near Gurazala in Guntur district on Friday.

The policemen were going in an autorickshaw to Madugula village to defuse eight bombs.

The Gurazala Circle Inspector, G. Penchala Naidu, the Sub-Inspector, Sk. Abdul Azeez, four gunmen and two passengers were hit by splinters of the landmine set off by the Maoists at around 11.10 a.m. a few feet in front of the autorickshaw, at Anjanapuram village.

Unfazed by the blast, the policemen got down from the autorickshaw and fired at the Maoists and even chased them into the forest.

Close call for boy

While one of the passengers, Ganapalli Benzamin (35), and a home guard, Kasumarthi Venkateswarlu (25), were admitted to Gurazala Government Hospital, the other policemen and the autorickshaw driver, Nagaiah, were given first-aid and sent home, the Gurazala Deputy Superintendent of Police, K.V. Chalapathi Rao, said. A seven-year-old boy, David Raju, escaped unhurt.

On information from the Madugula village secretary that eight live bombs had been found near the house of one Nannapaneni Suraiah, in Madugula village, following a dispute between supporters of two inmates of Gurazala Sub-Jail, the police started in a jeep for Madugula, he said.

Mid-way they changed the vehicle to avoid identification by the Maoists, but two naxalites, believed to be from the Krishnapatti dalam, spotted them and triggered the landmine. Patchwork was done at the place, a tell-tale sign of the Maoists having planted the landmine quite some time ago.

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Andhra Pradesh