6 Maoists killed in encounter

A gunbattle between Maoists and a joint team of the Special Operations Group of Orissa and the elite Greyhound commando...

A gunbattle between Maoists and a joint team of the Special Operations Group of Orissa and the elite Greyhound commando force of Andhra Pradesh is believed to have left more than half a dozen Maoists on Saturday evening.

Acting on intelligence inputs that nearly 40 to 50 guerillas of Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army have assembled,the security personnel raided forests in Gumandi area under Narayanpatna police station of Koraput district. Though the gunbattle stopped soon after,it resumed on Sunday morning.

Police officers said 12 kit bags as well as a live claymore mine were recovered from the forests after the Maoists retreated. Marks of the Naxals bodies dragged away were visible. Koraput SP Arun Kumar Sahu said the Maoist casualties could be anywhere between five and 10. However,we have not recovered any bodies of the Maoists so far, said Director of Police Intelligence Prakash Mishra.

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A high alert has been sounded in Koraput following the exchange of fire between the police and Naxals.

The gunbattle came a day after CRPF DG Vikram Srivastava met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other senior police officers to discuss force deployment in the Maoist-affected areas.

The inaccessible hilly terrain and miles of dense forests that join Orissa and Andhra make Narayanpatna a safe haven for the Maoists. Police officers said for the last two years,Narayanpatna block had become a key segment on the route of Naxals criss-crossing areas of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. From Narayanpatna,the rebels can easily reach Visakhapatnam hamlets through Parvatipuram of Andhra Pradesh. The block also connects to the remote areas of Malkangiri district. Recently,Subhasree Das,the arrested wife of senior Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda,confessed to the police that the Central Committee of the CPI(Maoist) had already given the go-ahead for a Lalgarh-type operation in Narayanpatna.

Meanwhile,the fear of Maoists has disrupted tiger census in Sunabeda wildlife sanctuary in Nuapada district as well as Keonjhar district. Orissa Chief Wildlife Warden P N Padhi said a section of junior forest officials had boycotted tiger census in Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary and Keonjhar forest division. The boycott followed forester Sangram Swains killing by the Maoists inside Sunabeda wildlife sanctuary last month.

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As per the 2004 census,Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary had 32 tigers. General secretary of Orissa non-gazetted Forest Service Association J B Patnaik said the junior forests officials could not risk their lives for tiger census.