Visakhapatnam, Nov 19 Six to seven Maoists, including top leaders, were killed in a fresh exchange of fire between Maoists and police in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitharamaraju district on Wednesday.
The encounter took place in the Meredumilli forest area, where top Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, his wife and four other Maoists were killed on Tuesday, police sources said.
All the slain Maoists are believed to be from Chhattisgarh.
Nineteen Maoists had escaped during Tuesday's encounter, and the security forces were continuing the combing operation in the area and the exchange of fire on Wednesday morning is said to be a continuation of the same.
Some top Maoist leaders are believed to have been killed in the latest exchange of fire.
Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Mahesh Chandra Laddha confirmed the exchange of fire during a press conference in Vijayawada. He said the exchange of fire was continuing. "The details are awaited," he said.
Following intelligence that Maoists from Chhattisgarh and Telangana were trying to enter Andhra Pradesh, the intelligence network was keeping a continuous watch on their movements.
"Based on specific information, an operation was launched on Monday. An exchange of fire took place in the ASR district on the morning of November 18 in which CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member Hidma and five other Maoists were neutralised," he said.
The intelligence chief said in continuation of that, 50 Maoists were arrested in NTR, Krishna, Eluru, Kakinada and Konaseema districts on Tuesday. Those arrested include three special zonal committee members, 23 platoon members, five divisional committee members and 19 area committee members.
Mahesh Chandra Laddha said that while making the arrests, the police ensured that no harm was caused to the general public.
"Probably, for the first time in history that we could arrest such a large number of Maoists, including important cadres," he said.
He revealed that a large cache of arms and explosives was recovered from the arrested Maoists. He termed the security operation a major success by the Andhra Pradesh police.
The ADG, along with SPs, IGs and commissioners of the five districts, addressed a press conference at the Command Control Centre in Vijayawada to reveal the details of the arrests.
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