MULUGU/BHUPALPALLY: Five Maoists were allegedly killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in the Dolijella forest area under the Karregutta forest along the Telangana–Chhattisgarh border in Mulugu district early on Thursday.
Acting on intelligence inputs that top Maoist leaders, along with their team, were taking shelter in the Karregutta forest area, security forces launched a combing operation. According to available information, senior Maoist leaders and area committee members were among those killed in the encounter. Officials suspect that more than five Maoists may have died in the exchange of fire, though official identification is yet to be confirmed.
On Thursday morning, security personnel comprising DRG (district reserve guard), bastar Fighters, COBRA, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and STF initiated combing operations under the name ‘Operation Kagar-2’ in the Karregutta forest area on the Chhattisgarh–Telangana border.
As security forces intensified combing operations in forest areas surrounding tribal hamlets, villagers in the agency area of Mulugu were gripped by panic.
Meanwhile, police in Mulugu and Jayashankar Bhupalapally districts have been placed on high alert and are conducting parallel combing operations. Local police in the agency area, along with other security forces, are closely monitoring traffic movement in the forest stretches under Eturunagaram, Mangapeta, Venkatapuram and Wazeedu police limits. Security measures and vehicle checks have also been intensified in Mulugu, as well as in Kataram and Mahadevpur in Bhupalapally district.
When TNIE contacted Eturunagaram assistant superintendent of police Manan Bhat, he stated that the encounter took place within the jurisdiction of Chhattisgarh state.