Elite commando,10 Maoists killed in encounter near Chhattisgarh-Telangana border

At least 10 Maoists and a Greyhounds commando were killed in an encounter near the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border in the early hours of Friday.

The Telangana state secretary of CPI Maoists Yapa Narayana alias Haribhushan alias Jagan and his wife Samakka were among those killed in the encounter.

The incident occurred near Tadpala and Poojarikankedu in Charla blocks of Jayashankar Bhupalapally district in Telangana. According to the police, the Greyhounds team and cops who were combing the area on credible information encountered the Maoists, resulting in firing.

Two AK 47s, 10 other weapons, a scanner, a laptop, Rs 41,000 in cash and incriminating literature were found at the site where the police believe at least 50 Maoists were camping for over a fortnight.

Bodies of commando Sushil Kumar Wilson, from the 2004 batch, and of the Maoists have been sent to Bhadrachalam by a chopper. Three Greyhound commandos injured in the encounter were also rushed to Bhadrachalam.

The joint forces of both the states are continuing their combing operations in the areas adjoining the encounter site. The police were keeping an eye on this area after several landmines were found in the locality.

Meanwhile, revolutionary poet and Maoist sympathiser Vara Vara Rao, in a statement, alleged that the police captured and killed the Maoists in cold blood.

Telangana Civil Liberties leaders moved a Lunch Motion petition in the High Court claiming it to be a fake encounter.

The group demanded a post-mortem of the Maoists in the presence of the judiciary in either Gandhi Hospital here or MGM Hospital in Warangal.

They also demanded an investigation into the encounter by a sitting Judge.