Hyderabad: People in Mulugu district of Telangana protested on Sunday, December 22, after a civil rights group visited Eturu Nagaram mandal following the death of seven maoists recently.
The protesters were family members of civilians who were recently shot dead by Maoists on suspicion of being police informants.
“Where were the civil rights groups when our family members were killed? Why are they coming here now?” asked the protesters during a demonstration in Eturu Nagaram mandal of Mulugu.
The families of the victims also burnt effigies of Maoists in front of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) office.
Maoists killed in Mulugu
The protest in Eturu Nagaram mandal was held as the civil rights group visited Mulugu after seven Maoists were killed in gun battle with the security forces recently.
A significant encounter involving Maoist insurgents occurred in the Eturu Nagaram mandal, Mulugu district of Telangana, resulting in the deaths of seven Maoists, including a key area secretary known as Bhadru.
The clash reportedly took place in the dense forest of Chalpaka, where Greyhounds unit engaged the Maoists in intense gunfire.
The police reported that during this operation, they seized a substantial cache of weapons, including two AK-47 rifles and various explosives.
Notably, this incident follows a similar encounter on November 22 in Sukma district, Chhattisgarh, where ten Maoists were killed, indicating a sustained effort by security forces to dismantle Maoist strongholds.
The security forces have been on high alert due to concerns that Maoists might attempt to re-establish their presence in Telangana following setbacks in Chhattisgarh.
The core leadership of the CPI (Maoist) largely comprises individuals from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, raising fears that increased pressure in Chhattisgarh could drive these insurgents back into neighbouring states.
Telangana HC asks govt to preserve bodies
After the Maoists were encountered, the Telangana High Court asked the Telangana police to preserve bodies of the deceased. The police were also directed to allow the family members and relatives of the Maoists to see the bodies.
The court issued the orders on a petition by a civil liberties group, which alleged that the Maoists were killed in a fake encounter, and adjourned further hearing on the petition to Tuesday.
The petitioner alleged that Maoists were captured by police after their food was mixed with sedatives. He claimed that they were tortured and killed in cold blood.
The counsel for the petitioner told the court that the bodies of the slain Maoists bore grievous injuries.
The court was also told that police shifted the bodies for postmortem without allowing the family members to see them.
The government, however, informed the court that forensic experts from the Kakatiya Medical College conducted a postmortem on the bodies and it was video recorded.
The court was told that the police had to shift the bodies immediately for postmortem examination due to a threat.
Seven Maoists, including a state committee member of the outlawed CPI-Maoist, were killed during an encounter by the anti-Maoist force Greyhounds in Chalpaka forests in Eturanagaram mandal of Mulugu district early Sunday. The Greyhounds force engaged with the group during combing operations.
The slain extremists include Bhadru alias Kursam Mangu, 35, commander of the Yellandu-Narsampet area committee and a member of the CPI-Maoist’s Telangana State Committee. The other six Maoists were identified as Egolapu Mallaiah, 43, Mussaki Deval, 22, Mussaki Jamuna, 23, Jai Singh, 25, Kishore, 22, and Kamesh, 23.
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