Naxals involved in R Udaygiri jailbreak held

Twelve naxals including a few involved in the R Udaygiri jailbreak incident were arrested on Sunday and huge quantities of explosives and ammunitions seized from them, during a joint combing operation of police and CRPF personnel in Orissa's Gajapati district.

After the Orissa government banned the functioning of CPI (Maoist) and seven other naxal outfits in June 2006, this has been a major catch for the cops engaged in anti-naxal operations.

More importantly, the arrested naxals included Ullash Rout (50), the president of  a banned naxal outfit Kui Lewanga Sangha (KLS) and head of CPI (Maoist) Basadhara zonal committee. He was in the wanted list of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh police since long.

Gajapati SP Amitendra Sinha told HT, Ullash was accused in 11 different cases of naxal violences within the state, the major one taking place on March 24, 2006 in R. Udayagiri area of the district.

In his leadership a group of about 100 armed naxals had attacked the R Udaygri sub-jail and released all the 42 prisoners kept there.

Three security personnel were also killed by the naxals, who went on rampage at the government treasury office and looted ammunitions from an armed police battallion.

"Some of the arrested have already confessed about their role in the R Udayagiri jail break and security personnel killing incidents. We have kept their leader, Ullash Rout in police remand to know about the Maoists' plans of operation in the near future," told the SP.

Along with large quantity live cartridges and hand grenades, police seized several leaflets and naxal literature from the Maoists, which indicated about their plans to spread violence in Gajapati and some other Southern Orissa districts.

About a week back, the Maoists had camped in the remote Kirima and Patasingha forest areas of Gajapati district to recruit tribal youths and impart them arms training. The police and CRPF personnel had set out on foot and covered a distance of nearly 15 kms to reach the

Maoists' camp in the inaccessible area, a senior police official informed.

The arrest of 12 naxals in Gajapati district came close on the heels of the arrest of three naxals including a CPI (Maoist) woman commander in the state's Sundergarh district on Saturday.