Search for survivors at the encounter site

Hyderabad, June 30: After three days of combing the forests, the exhausted commandos had thought they would take a short-cut to their base. The decision cut short their lives.

Police officials said the dead or missing Greyhound commandos, attacked near an Orissa reservoir yesterday by Maoists lying in wait, may have made it to their camp in Andhra, 25km away, had they trekked back.

But the temptation of a three-hour boat ride across the Sileru, which divides Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, instead of a two-day walk to reach the bank on the Andhra side proved difficult to resist.

Those who survived the Maoist pounding today rued their decision. “I wish we had taken the land route and had a chance to get at the enemy,” said A. Subramanyameswar Rao, a constable of the elite anti-Maoist unit who was hit but managed to swim to safety.

Andhra chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who visited the attack spot, told reporters 20 commandos — part of the 60-odd on the search team — were still missing. Orissa police put the number of missing at 36. Sources said 10 bodies had been found so far.

Some sources hinted at a trap, saying the Greyhound commandos and police were “lured” into taking the boat ride as some 120 Maoists were waiting on the banks.

Preliminary investigations have shown that the rockets the rebels fired fell four or five feet short of their target but shook the boat, throwing the jawans into the water. “Though well trained, many were either sleepy or the exhaustion had taken toll of their energies,” a police officer said.

Inspector Lakshmoji, who swam to safety, said the Maoists who had taken position on hillocks on either side of the Sileru caught them unawares. “Without weapons in our hands, we were sitting ducks in the water for the rebels who were armed with AK-47s and LMGs.”

Police sources said after the boat capsized, the Maoists sprinted down the hillocks and chased the commandos in country boats as the ambushed personnel struggled to reach the banks of the river, about 300 metres wide and 100 metres deep in that stretch. “They shot at the drowning men,” said a source.

A senior police official said the commandos ignored the routine exercise of sterilising the area by an advance party. “Their urge to return to base faster blinded them to safety measures,” he added.

Chief minister Reddy said “lack of co-ordination” between the Andhra and Orissa police forces “perhaps” led to the massacre.

Reddy said the family of every dead commando would be given a housing plot and a compensation package of Rs 5-10 lakh, a job for a family member, free education and healthcare for children plus the last salary of the slain men till the year they would have retired.