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Significant Police Operation in Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam: In a significant police operation, three prominent leaders of the CPI(Maoist) were killed during a gunfight with law enforcement in the Alluri Sitarama Raju district of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.

The confrontation took place in the Devipatnam forest area, located along the Andhra-Odisha border, involving the elite anti-Maoist unit known as the Greyhounds.

While conducting a combing operation, the Greyhounds encountered the Maoists and urged them to surrender. The Maoists responded with gunfire, prompting the security forces to retaliate, resulting in the deaths of the three individuals.

The deceased Maoists were identified as Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, who served as the secretary of the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) Special Zone Committee, along with Aruna and Anju, both members of the Special Zone Committee.

Ravi was also affiliated with the CPI(Maoist) Central Committee.

From the encounter site, security forces recovered three AK-47 rifles.

Aruna was the spouse of Ramachandra Reddy alias Chalapathi, a Central Committee member who was killed earlier this year in Chhattisgarh, along with 13 other Maoists.

She was implicated in the murders of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma, both of whom were shot by Maoists in 2018 in Visakhapatnam. Aruna hailed from Karakavanipalem in Pendurthi mandal and had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on her head, matching that of Uday.

The bodies of the deceased Maoists have been transported to the Rampachodavaram Area Hospital.

Senior police officials have visited the encounter site.

This incident marks a significant blow to the Maoist organization in the AOB region, which has been viewed as a crucial corridor connecting the Dandakaranya area in Chhattisgarh with the forests of Jharkhand.

This latest setback for the Maoists follows a series of operations in Chhattisgarh, known as Operation Kagar, which resulted in the deaths of several Maoists.