three members of elite Greyhound Force of Andhra Pradesh have gone missing after a boat bringing them back from Orissa back to Sileru in Visakhapatnam came under attack by the CPI Maoist rebels and capsized on Sunday morning. Sandeep Shandalya, the deputy inspector general of police, Visakhapatnam range told Saudi Gazette over phone that 57 policemen including Greyhound personnel were returning from Orissa when the Maoists opened fire at their boat in Machkund reservoir in Malkangiri district of Orissa. While 24 of the policemen managed to swim to the safety, 33 were missing. Some of them suffered bullet injuries in the firing by the Maoists from a nearby hill. Apart from other weapons, the Maoists used light machine gun to target the boat in what appears to be a meticulously planned attack. While there were fears that the driver of the launch and a sub-inspector were killed in the incident, Sandeep Shandalya said that there was no information about any casualties. “Rescue teams have reached the spot and search is on for the missing personnel,” he said. Two Naval helicopters were sent to the spot of the incident near Bodikuttu to search for the missing men. There were reports that at least 12 policemen were injured in the firing and ten of them were in a critical condition. They have been shifted to a hospital in Visakhapatnam. Reports said that after the boat had capsized and the police personnel had jumped in to the lake, the Maoists entered the reservoir in country boats and opened fire on the policemen swimming to safety. According to the police a newly constitute wing State Milita Commission of the Maoists carried out the attack. Naxalites from the Andhra-Orissa border special zone committee were involved in the attack. It is well known that the elite anti-Naxalite Greyhound Force of Andhra Pradesh has been involved in the combing operations along with the police of Orissa and Chattisghar states in the territory of those states, where Maoists have been more active in the recent past. In Hyderabad, State Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy reviewed the situation with the high-level police officials and directed them to take all the possible measures to find and rescue the missing policemen. __
