Police open fire in air as smugglers attack

Three red sander smugglers hurt in Bakarapet forest

Tirupati: An armed police party, which was combing along with Forest department staff in the Tholagutta area of Bakarapet range, opened fire in air after they came under attack of the red sander smugglers on Friday morning.

According to the department sources, the Forest personnel, with the support of armed police, launched the combing operations against the smugglers in the Pulibonubavi area in the morning. At around 11 am they came face to face with a big contingent of smugglers in Tholagutta.

The combing party surrounded the smugglers, but the brigands hit back at police with stones, forcing them to pen fire in air to deter them. The smugglers were forced to retreat into the deep forest.

The forest and armed police were on intense combing to track down the smugglers, when reports last came in. Unconfirmed reports said three smugglers were injured in the firing, but they were carried away by others into the deep forest. Five members of the combing party were injured in the stone attack by the smugglers.

22 smugglers nabbed

In another incident, Chandragiri police nabbed 22 smugglers and recovered 23 red sander logs from them. Chandragiri CI Mallikarjuna Gupta told the media that, based on credible information, police on Thursday had kept a watch on the Puthalapattu-Naidupeta highway leading to the arrest of the smugglers.

Police spotted the group of smugglers loading red sanders in a vehicle at the Bodimbavi area on the national highway and encircled them.

The arrested were from Tamil Nadu engaged by smugglers to carry red sanders from forest and load them in vehicles for illegally transporting them to Tamil Nadu, before they were exported.