CENTRE’S GREYHOUNDS STRATEGY PAYS OFF, MAOISTS CRIPPLED

a top official in the AP police told The Sunday Guardian on Thursday. In the normal course, whenever a police party from a neighbouring state wants to conduct any searches or raids, it is mandatory to obtain permission from the local police chief. But after noticing the strategic weaknesses of Odisha and Chhattisgarh police, the MHA gave permission to the AP Greyhounds to enter these states whenever required, without any prior permission, the official explained.

Even the AP Director General of Police, N. Sambasiva Rao told the media on Wednesday that the Greyhounds of the state have led the combining operations in Odisha for the past few weeks and an intense groundwork has paid off, culminating in Monday’s encounter. Though AP has been divided into Andhra and Telangana, the Greyhounds are a single force till date.

The Greyhounds divide into small units and take up search and combing operations in the jungles of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Though the local police are included in the operations, their role is minimal as route guides or language interpreters. The presence of the Greyhounds in Odisha and Chhattisgarh borders is so intense that they get tip-offs from the local police informers, sources told this newspaper.

The Greyhounds use he- licopters and jeeps to reach the interiors of these states and sometimes the local police do not even have information about their operations. This was evident when Malkangiri SP, Mitrabhanu Mahapatra had to ask for the identity of several plainclothesmen policemen from Greyhounds who were present at the time of the handing over of the bodies of the slain Maoists to their kith and kin on Wednesday.

Monday’s encounter has left the Maoists with deeper bruises as AOBC secretary Akkiraju Haragopal’s son, Pridhvi alias Munna, was among the killed. Munna went to the forests five years ago to see his father, who has been underground for the past 10 years and ended up joining the Maoists as an area committee member. Munna’s maternal uncle Kalyan Rao is a popular Telugu novelist.

Besides Munna, AOBC state committee members Venkata Ramana, alias Prasad alias Ganesh and Chamala Kistaiah alias Daya, district committee member PKM Prabhakar alias Gangadhar, regional committee members Bharati alias Latha, Madhu alias Daveed, Keshava Rao alias Barusu, senior member Mamata alias Kundana are some of the top Maoist leaders killed in the encounter.

The police has kept the bodies of 28 killed Maoists in containers at the Malkangiri police headquarters after conducting post-mortem by Tuesday. However, the kith and kin of only nine of the deceased have identified the bodies and taken them home for funerals. “The remaining bodies will be preserved for a few more days so that their relatives can take them,” Mitrabhanu Mahapatra told this newspaper on phone.

The encounter also resulted in the death of a Greyhounds commando, Abubakar, who died after falling in a 100 ft deep water body while running away from the Maoists who opened fire at him. In all, 50 top Maoists, including Haragopal, are believed to be present at a camp when the Greyhounds carried out a predawn swoop on them. But he managed to escape from the encounter spot.

Haragopal is a key functionary in the Maoist leadership in the country and a close associate of Maoists’ Central Committee secretary Muppalla Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi. Haragopal was the Maoists’ representative at the peace talks they held with the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government in AP in 2004. Haragopal carries a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head.

Sources in Greyhounds units belonging to Telangana told this newspaper that their combing operations are aimed at two purposes: one to assist neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh police in tackling the Maoists and second to prevent the extremists from creating trouble in Telangana and AP, thereby gaining a foothold here. Presently, the two Telugu states are used by Maoists as shelter zones, he said.