Police intensified combing operations in the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) area on Sunday.
On Friday night, Maoists had set ablaze an earthmover to stall construction of a road and tried to abduct the brother of a local politician in GK Veedhi mandal in the Agency area.
The police had been making deep inroads into the Maoist-affected areas of the Agency areas of the district since October 2015.
After the October 24, 2015 exchange of fire at Ramaguda in the cut-off area of AOB, in which about 30 Maoists were killed by Greyhounds, the elite anti-Naxal force of AP, police tasted success again when they eliminated Gemmeli Narayan Rao alias Jambri, Divisional Committee member of the Galikonda (south) area committee of the CPI (Maoist), in an encounter.
Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam Rural) Rahul Dev Sharma was instrumental in convincing a large number of Maoists to surrender and join the mainstream. The outlawed group has been decimated in the Agency area except in Korukonda and Pedabayalu regions. As both these areas border Odisha, Maoists have been finding it easy to escape to the other side after indulging in violence.
Combing operations are going on either side of the border and it is a routine process, say police sources.
“The present combing operation has nothing to do with the burning of the earthmover. The last man in the Galikonda Dalam has also surrendered and the act of the Maoists was only to prove their existence,” Deputy Inspector General Ch. Srikanth told The Hindu on Sunday evening.
