Two more dead bodies fished out, 14 still missing in Balimela Reservoir

odishatoday.com, 7th July, 2008
By Anurjay Dhal
Bhubaneswar (Orissa):
Divers of Indian Navy on Sunday fished out one more dead bodies of the missing elite class Greyhounds Jawans of Andhra Pradesh in Chitrakonda across the Balimela reservoir taking the toll to 22 in Malkangiri district. The well-trained divers have been searching for missing Jawans since June 29 following Maoists attack on a motorboat carrying anti-insurgency forces in Balimela reservoir. "As per our report, 14 still missing and we have made steps to deploy one MI-17 chopper to lift the boat, which was capsized from the bed of the reservoir," DIG, SWPR Sanjeeb Panda said. Though a week had elapsed since the incident, search and rescue team involving divers from the Navy, Greyhound personnel, those from the Special Operation Group, CRPF and Orissa police, recovered only 24 bodies so far. Malkangiri SP Satish K Gajbhiye said the heavy-duty helicopter would be used to pull the boat. "If the helicopter also failed to lift the boat, the authorities will bring a special equipment from Singapore to lift the vessel" the SP said. Sources further said the sunken vessel on the reservoir bed was barely 200 feet away and could be dragged to shore. Meanwhile, security experts in Orissa felt that the meticulous ambush on the Greyhounds by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the CPI (Maoist) in the Balimela reservoir indicates the continuity of mobile warfare phase. "The need of the hour is well coordinated inter-border anti-Maoists operation to check growing influence of outlawed leftwing rebels," argued former Orissa DGP Amiya Bhusan Tripathy. "We have to take up it as major threat for internal security," the former DGP told www.odishatoday.com. Security experts believed that the Greyhound played a major role in making the Andhra model successful, primarily by flushing the armed cadre out of the Nalamala forests, Telangana and Palnad region. As a result of which, many senior Maoist leaders have been camping in Malkangiri district. Therefore, the combing operation in Janbai area, which has been virtually declared 'liberated zone' by the CPI-Maoist, gave an opportunity to take a lethal strike on security apparatus. The Maoists like Janbai often claims Chitrakonda as their liberated zone in Orissa. The Chitrakonda reservoir attack of Maoists took their water warfare to a new level in Orissa. The waterway near Alampakka, where the Maoists ambushed the Greyhounds was barely 75 metres wide allowing radicals to target their vessels with precision. The reservoir is 85 feet deep at that point and police sources ruled out use of rocket launchers in the attack. The ambush point is towards east of the reservoir and has two constrictions in close proximity. Undoubtedly, the incident reflects strong support base of the CPI-Maoist vis-a-vis poor intelligence of Orissa Police. The State Police has consistently failed to collect intelligence in southern Orissa due to complete lack of police-public relationship. In the last three months, Maoists have killed more than 10 persons by branding them as police informers in Malkangiri district. Local people have been facing problems due to frequent strikes called by the CPI-Maoist. Well placed sources said the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoists) has deputed around two hundred Maoist cadres from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to Orissa for organisational building in Malkangiri, Koraput, Kalahandi, and Nawarangpur. They have been trying to set up a corridor from Kalahandi-Nuapada and Bastar.