Naxal ambush: 10 bodies recovered,28 Greyhound still missing

Bhubaneswar, July 3 (UNI) With the recovery of eight more bodies today, the toll rose to ten in the June 29 Naxalite ambush when a motorboat carrying Greyhound commandos capsized in the Chitrakonda reservoir.

However, 28 Greyhound jawans of Andhra Pradesh still remained untraced.

Malkangiri Superintendent of Police S K Gajabhiye told UNI over phone that the rescue-search and combing operation launched jointly by the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa Police recovered the bodies trapped inside the cabin of the motor boat.

Home Secretary T K Mishra said the bodies were decomposed and major part of the bodies were eaten by fish.

He said efforts were on to trace the other missing jawans.

Mr Mishra said five persons from Orissa were in the boat. Out of the five, three persons--Mr Susanta Sethi, Mr Iswar Rao and Mr Manoranjan Dey, were from the Irrigation department, while the rest --Tapan Kumar Mohanty and Ranjan Kumar Khara were from the Police department.

He said that after the incident while Mr Sethi, Mr Dey and Mr Mohanty returned, the body of Mr Ranjan Khara was recovered today.

Mr Rao was still mssing,he added.

Mr Mishra said no bullet or injury mark was found on the bodies recovered today.

The rescue team had already located the ill-fated boat which was capsized following heavy exchange of firing on June 29 inside the reservoir.

The sonar equipment used by the rescue team from the Navy and ONGC located the boat, but found it difficult to retrieve it from the 40 M deep water.

Besides the five bodies, the police also have recovered two Insas, one SLR, one LMG and one AK 47 rifle from the reservoir. The police apprehended that some cops might have been trapped inside the boat as it was overcrowded when it capsized.

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