Anti-Naxal raids stepped up in Malnad districts

The Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) has stepped up combing operations in Naxal-affected areas of Malnad districts in the wake of the police recovering the decomposed body of a man in Nadpalu forest area in Karkala taluk, Udupi district.

Home Minister R Ashoka said that it was still not known who killed Sadashiva Gowda, a bamboo basket weaver. The nature of murder will be known only after receiving a report from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory, he said.

Ashoka said combing operations in Udupi and surrounding districts had been also intensified.

‘Naxal act’

The postmortem report of Gowda, who was found murdered with gunshot wounds under a tree in Nadpalu on Wednesday, pointed to the Naxals’ hand behind Gowda’s death.

Udupi Superintendent of Police Y S Ravikumar told Deccan Herald that the gunshot wounds inflicted on Gowda’s chest left no doubt that the Naxals were behind the killing. “We were looking at all angles and trying to find the cause of the death.

However, the post mortem report points to the Naxals,” he said. Combing operations had been intensified in Hebri and rural areas in Karkala, he added.