JOIN USHYDERABAD: At least six Naxalites belonging to the CPI(CP-Baata), a newly-formed extremist outfit, were killed in an encounter with the police in Tekulapalli forests of Telangana's Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Thursday morning.
The encounter in Kamaram forest area started on Wednesday night and it continued till the early hours of Thursday.
District SP Amber Jha said that the police have been receiving inputs about the movement of some hardcore extremists in the forests indulging in extortion from contractors and local businessmen. "We got specific inputs about their movement in the Tekulapalli and Paloncha forest areas. We rushed our special forces there, which resulted in an encounter," Jha said. The combing operations are still going on.
Only four of the extremists killed in the encounter were identified while three others who were injured in the shootout are missing. So far Vetti Kumar alias Rakhi (Area committee Secretary of Manuguru-Kothagudem), Esam Naresh alias Sudarsan (area commander), Azad and Madhu were identified.
The police also confiscated several weapons from the spot, including an SLR, two 8 mm rifles and two SBBL guns along with 8 kit bags.
CP-Baata has received a strong blow while it was regrouping after its mother group was wiped out long ago. These Naxals are splinter groups of the Maoists with more or less same ideology but with difference in functioning. Apart from CP-Baata group, there are other outfits CPI (New Democracy) and CPI (Jana Sakthi) which are active in the Bhadradri area. Some of them surrendered to the police in the recent past. On September 21, two Naxals of the New Democracy group were killed in an encounter in the same block.