The elite anti-Maoist Greyhounds forces spotted the maoists in the Chalpaka forest and ordered them to surrender, the police said.

Police said the encounter with Maoist occurred early on Sunday morning. (Representative image)

Security forces killed seven maoists in an encounter in Telangana’s Mulugu district on Sunday morning, a week after two tribal men were murdered on suspicion of being police informers in the area.

The encounter broke out early in the morning, around 5.30 am, according to IANS. The elite anti-Maoist Greyhounds forces spotted the Maoists in the Chalpaka forest and ordered them to surrender.

Police said that the maoists did not surrender and instead fired back at the unit, forcing them to fire back.

Seven insurgents were killed during the encounter, with the biggest name being Bhadru alias Kursam Mangu alias Papanna. The 35-year-old was the Yellandu-Narsampet area committee commander of the CPI (Maoist) and a member of its State Committee.

Six other Maoists killed in the encounter were identified as 43-year-old Egolapu Mallaiah, 22-year-old Mussaki Deval, 23-year-old Mussaki Jamuna, 25-year-old Jai Singh, 22-year-old Kishore, and 23-year-old Kamesh. According to the police, they were all being led by Bhadru.

The said weapons have been seized by the police.

First major encounter in recent years

Sunday’s encounter is the first major one in the area in some years as the attempt to reorganise in the Mulugu district and revive their activities. Two tribal men were said to be killed by the Maoists in Mulugu on November 21 over suspicion of being police informers.

The two men killed were identified as Uika Ramesh and Uika Arjun. Ramesh was working as the secretary of Peruru Gram Panchayat. A note was found with their bodies claiming that the duo was working to collect information and pass it off to the state authorities.

Whether the killers of the duo were part of the seven Maoists who were killed in the encounter is not yet known.