7 Naxalites, 2 TDP leaders killed in state

HYDERABAD/GUNTUR/ONGOLE: Seven naxalites were killed in four different places in the state since Thursday, while the extremists gunned down two TDP leaders and a young man.
In a daylight operation, Adilabad district police gunned down three members of a special action team of the People''s War (PW) near Bellampally on Friday.
Adilabad SP Mahesh Bhagwat said police teams surrounded a house in Kannala Basti, where PW commanders J Sridhar and E Hanumanthu and a squad member G Rajender were taking shelter and asked them to surrender.
The naxalites, instead, fired on the police, and a fierce gun-battle took place between the two for an hour, which finally left the three militants dead. Sridhar is an accused in the killing of TDP MLA P Purushottam Rao. The police recovered an US-made carbine and two pistols from the spot.
Two members of CPI-ML Janashakthi group were killed in Medak district on late Thursday evening. The dead included Jahangir alias Johnson and M Kanakaiah. Two guns were recovered from them.
In Karimnagar, a special police team spotted a group of naxalites moving in Mahadevpur forest area and engaged them in a gun-battle on early Friday morning. The police later found the body of Rapelli Srinivas, PW local squad member.
The extremists also killed a TDP mandal parishad territorial committee member in Adilabad district on Thursday night.
The PW naxalites have killed a TDP leader and his son at Srinagar village in Dachepalli mandal on Friday. According to police, four naxalites came to village at around 11 am and dragged a hotel owner and TDP leader Kurri Bramha Reddy from his hotel located on state highway.
They started beating him ruthlessly. Bramha Reddy''s son Suman Reddy tried to rescue his father.
Angered by the intervention, the naxalites shot them from pointblank range leading to their instant death. The militants alleged that Reddy was a police informer.
In a related development, a woman naxalite was killed in an alleged encounter that occurred in Nallamala forests in Prakasam district on Friday. The naxalites planted five claymore mines and triggered one of it on seeing police. Police escaped the attack and retaliated with fire.