VISAKHAPATNAM: The police here said there's been another exchange of fire at noon Monday between its forces and some stragglers who had escaped this morning's slaying of 24 Maoists by the police in the jungles of Malkangiri in Odisha.
According to police officials here, there had been more than 50 Maoists attending a plenary session of the CPI [Maoist]. The group scattered when Greyhounds personnel opened up on them and a few Maoists managed to flee from the spot. Police teams continued to track them and at around 12 noon there was an exchange of fire between both sides.
Confirming this second exchange of fire, Visakhapatnam rural superintendent of police Rahul Dev Sharma told New Indian Express "there was an exchange of fire near the same spot where the encounter took place in the early hours of today. Many Maoists had managed to flee and they started to fire again."
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The toll in the encounter has been raised to 24. Those slain include eight women Maoists.
Officer on special duty [operations) Attada Babujee said 23 bodies have been recovered from the incident spot, including those of the eight women Maoists.
The operation was jointly carried out by the Greyhound of AP and the Special Operations Group [SOG] and the District Voluntary Force [DVF) of Odisha. The joint operations team entered northeastern interior forest region of the Andhra-Odisha border in the Panasput area in Malkangiri district of Odisha.
Sources said the area is thickly vegetated marked by harsh terrain which is approximately eight km from Busiputtu village and around 25 km from Rorukota village in the Munchingput Mandal in Visakhapatnam Agency.
The Maoists had reportedly been going on for a couple of days when the police forces engaged them.