The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : CRPF jawan injured in exchange of fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 02, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

CRPF jawan injured in exchange of fire

By Our Staff Reporter

WARANGAL, MARCH 1. A Central Reserve Police Force jawan was injured in an exchange of fire with naxalites near Kataram village of Tadvai mandal on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

According to the Eturunagaram CI, K Dakshinamurthy, a group of Maoists led by the Eturunagaram local guerrilla squad commander, Damodar, descended on the forest office complex near Kataram at around 11 pm. They woke up the range officer, Ilaiah, who sleeping in the range office and planted a claymore mine and detonated it.

After blasting the office, they retreated into the forest. But, at around 1.30 a.m. they ran into a group of policemen who were on combing operation. Immediately, the naxals began firing at them. The police retaliated and the exchange of fire went on for 20 minutes.

A bullet pieced through the right palm of A. Gajendran of 83 CRPF battalion.

Casualties, if any, on the side of naxalites could not be ascertained immediately.

"One of them retreated wailing and calling for help from his comrades. However, we are not in a position to confirm the losses suffered by naxalites," Mr. Dakshinamurthy said.

Explosives recovered

The police recovered four claymore mines, one camera flash, a wire bundle, a multimeter, one kitbag and empty rounds of AK 47 SLR and .303 rifle.

Two cases were booked against the Maoists.

Mr. Gajendran (27) hails from Vypaneri village of Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. He worked in Jammu and Kashmir before he was shifted to 83 battalion at Bheemaram a year ago. Mr. Gajendran was administered first aid at Tadvai and was rushed to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital at the district headquarters. The Warangal range DIG, B. L. Meena, the Superintendent of Police, M. S. Ravindra, and the additional SP (Operations), V. R. Kalidas, visited him at the hospital.

Later, he was shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad.

Encounter in agency

In Visakhapatnam district, the Maoists and a police party exchanged fire near the agency village of Garikabanda in G.K. Veedhi mandal late on Sunday evening and Monday morning.

The Maoists escaped into the thick forest after Monday's incident. A kitbag, a binocular and a claymore mine were recovered from the scene, according to a press release from the Officer on Special Duty, J. Muralidhar.

The Maoists tried to provoke the police by resorting to ambush tactics, he said.

Identified

Meanwhile, the person who was killed in the Bavapur encounter in Adilabad district has been identified as Kishan, a courier of the Indervelli dalam of the CPI( Maoist).

The person who was taken into custody by the police after the encounter has been identified as Ootla Govind who allegedly acted as a go-between for Kishan and the Indervelli dalam commander, Prabhakar alias Bhatti Rajanna, for solving Kishan's land dispute with another person.

The two had been holding a meeting with the Indervelli dalam near Bavapur at the time of the encounter, according to the Adilabad Superintendent of Police, Kripanand Tripathi Ujela.

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