Reverting to their old tactic of carrying out attacks as small action teams, Maoists struck terror at remote tribal habitations near Janampeta in Pinapaka mandal by killing a migrant Adivasi man and injuring another, suspected to be a former naxalite, by branding them “police informers” around Friday midnight.
In a well planned attack, apparently timed to coincide with the Republic Day, the rebels swooped down on a sand quarry along the Godavari and set on fire four trucks, two earth-moving machines and a tractor late in the night.
It was the major attack by the Maoists in the tribal heartland of Telangana since the formation of the State in 2014.
Friday’s attacks were carried out by three teams of Maoists numbering about 40 rebels.
The incident triggered tension in temporary tribal settlements, inhabited by migrant Adivasis from neighbouring Chhattisgarh, in Pinapaka and other tribal sub-plan mandals of Bhadrachalam division.
