HYDERABAD: In a major blow to Maoists, as many as 12 of its cadre including a top leader were killed in an alleged encounter with the police in the agency areas near the Telangana-Chhatisgarh borders. One Greyhounds constable was also killed in the shootout, police sources said.
Senior Maoist leader and it's Telangana secretary Hari Bhushan was also among those killed in the alleged encounter, said sources.
According to sources, the police and the elite anti-Naxal force, Greyhounds, were combing the Cherlapally division forests on specific information of Maoists movement in the area.
The police spotted the Maoists moving in a group at Tondapal in Cherlapally Mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district and an exchange of fire ensued.
Nearly 12 Maoists were said to be killed and a couple of them injured while a Greyhounds constable identified as Sushil Kumar also died of bullet injuries.
The exchange of fire is still going on, reports said, adding that an AK-47 and some other weapons were recovered from the encounter spot.
Condemning the police encounter, writer Varavara Rao alleges that police detained Maoists in Telangana and took them to Chattishgarh where police killed Maoists in the fake encounter.
The incident comes nearly two and a half months after eight members of CPI (ML) Chandra Pulla Reddy Bata faction in an exchange of fire at Mellamadugu forest area in Tekulapalli Mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district on December 14, 2017.