The Hindu : Front Page : Intense police combing operation in Nallamala forest ranges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Intense police combing operation in Nallamala forest ranges

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Several anti-naxalite teams of the police launched extensive combing operations in the Nallamala forest ranges spread over four districts on Monday amid reports that they were closing in on a couple of top Maoist leaders in Arthaveedu mandal of Prakasam district.

The police were said to have come close to the hideout of military commission chairman of the Maoists Sakhamuri Appa Rao, but senior police officers here have strongly denied it.

A report from Guntur said he was moving with 40 extremists as his guards.

Prakasam SP N. Balasubrahmanyam told The Hindu that 20 teams of the elite Greyhounds were despatched on specific information that Appa Rao and two other important leaders— Sudarshan and Satyam— were holed up in the forest.

Cops on prowl

A senior officer admitted that the forces were on the prowl but neither the extremists were sighted nor was there a gunbattle. It might have been a false alarm from the extremists noticing the movement of forces, he added.

Another officer referred to the combing as a routine one to flush out extremists from the hideout.

A report said the local people near Yerragondapalem on the Vinukonda-Guntur route had heard an explosion from the forest around 4 p.m.

It added that there was intense combing operations on Guntur - Prakasam borders.

But, senior officers could not establish contact with the police teams as they were deep inside the forest.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page