Maoist encounter: Death toll rises to 27, Maoists suffer major setback in Malkangiri district

Maoists in Malkangiri district suffered their biggest setback on Monday as a total of 27 Maoists were gunned down in a joint operation by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh Police.

Published: October 25, 2016 9:54 AM IST

By India.com News Desk

Maoist encounter: Death toll rises to 27, Maoists suffer major setback in Malkangiri district

Malkangiri, Oct 25: The joint operation carried out by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh helped remove the last Maoist bastion in south Odisha’s Malkangiri district. The governments of both the states have taken a serious step to curb the menace of Maoism in their respective states. The special units of the Odisha Police and the Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh Police initiated the operation to tackle the Maoists.

The Maoists who were killed have been identified as Daya, Venkat Ramana, Bengal Suresh, Ganesh, Latha, Mamata, Budri, Rajesh, Swarna, Madhu and Murali while four AK-47s and three SLRs were recovered by the Police from the encounter site.

On Monday morning, at least 21 Maoists including 11 women were killed on Monday. As per recent reports, the death toll rises to 27 after 3 more dead bodies of Maoists were recovered by Andhra Pradesh and Odisha police. The joint operation continued for 90-minutes in a forest in Malkangiri district near the Andhra-Odisha border. This is the second major encounter and the biggest in Malkangiri and one of the major incidents in the Andhra-Odisha border area.

As per reports by Indian Express, the Maoists were reportedly holding a plenary session, which was to be attended by central committee member Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna. There were reports that Ramakrishna had escaped but police could not confirm if he was there but said Ramakrishna’s son, Munna, was among those killed.

This was a major setback that the Maoists suffered they had a hold over the place for quite few years and wiping them off completely was a major jolt for them. The Maoists had made the Malkangiri disctrict as their home for over a decade now.

As per reports, earlier the Malkangiri police launched a mass outreach programme under the leadership of SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra. The programm has seen scores of Maoists surrender. Malkangiri disctrict remained a stronghold for the Maoists as they were active in as many as 18 of the 30 districts in the state.

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