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20 red sanders smugglers killed
In what is considered to be the biggest encounter in the last three decades, the Andhra Pradesh police shot dead at least 20 red sanders ‘smugglers’ on Tuesday morning in the Seshachalam forest area, on the outskirts of the temple town of Tirupati.According to officials on Tuesday morning, a beat guard on patrol heard sounds of chopping trees and whistles and whoops that smugglers use to communicate in the forests not very far from the \'Srivarimettu\' trekking route to Tirumala
Tirupati: In what is considered to be the biggest encounter in the last three decades, the Andhra Pradesh police shot dead at least 20 red sanders ‘smugglers’ on Tuesday morning in the Seshachalam forest area, on the outskirts of the temple town of Tirupati.According to officials on Tuesday morning, a beat guard on patrol heard sounds of chopping trees and whistles and whoops that smugglers use to communicate in the forests not very far from the 'Srivarimettu' trekking route to Tirumala around 5 am and alerted the Tirupati Forest Division officers.
- Biggest encounter in last three decades in AP
- Deceased are all red sanders smugglers: Seema DIG
- Incident takes place in Seshachalam forests
- Cops allege they were attacked with stones, arrows
- Reports say deceased were labourers from Tamil Nadu
The forest officials, who are not allowed to carry fire arms, sought the help of Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force, specially set up to assist the forest officials, and raided the area. Task Force DIG M Kanta Rao told the media that they had received a tip-off around 7 pm on Monday evening that over 200 red sanders woodcutters and smugglers were moving around the forest area near Srivarimettu.
Two joint combing parties comprising forest department staff and cops were dispatched to go after the woodcutters and smugglers moving around in the region.As soon as they saw the police, at least 150 to 200 labourers hired by the smugglers, rained stones, shot arrows and threw sticks and iron rods. They hid behind boulders and attacked.
At least eight forest officials were injured and the Task Force opened fire in self defence. While 11 bodies with bullet wounds and in a pool of blood were found scattered all over the place near Cheekateegalakona, 9 bodies were found near Eethakunta forest area, which is around 1 km away from the first spot after the attack.
