Rebel Fear

Bhubaneswar. July 3: Divers of the Indian Navy today recovered eight bodies from the boat that had capsized in Balimela reservoir following the Malkangiri rebel attack on Sunday. Seven bodies were of commandoes belonging to the elite Greyhound force of the Andhra Pradesh government.

With the recovery of the eight bodies the death toll has gone up to 10, confirmed state home secretary T.K. Mishra, this afternoon.

He added that 22 personnel were still missing.

In the past two days, bodies of two (Greyhound) commandos were recovered from the reservoir. The deceased were identified as Uday Nag and V. Jeevala. Nag’s body was found with his hands tied behind his back. Officials believe that the personnel was pushed in the tank after his hands were tied.

Of the eight bodies recovered today, one was of Ranjan Khara, a constable in the Chitrakonda police station who had accompanied the Greyhound team.

He was found near the shore. Two other bodies recovered from the sunken boat were identified as Greyhound commandos Mohammed Salamuddin and J. Shankar Rao.

It is suspected that more bodies are trapped in the cabin of the sunken boat, said the home secretary.

The boat was traced yesterday lying at a bottom of the 43m deep Balimela reservoir with the help of Sonar equipment. Seamers are still struggling to retrieve more bodies by cutting the boat apart.

For this, equipment has been ordered from Visakhapatnam to speed up the process, conceded the Malkangiri superintendent of police, S.K. Gajbhiye.

Divers of Indian Navy and a private agency are busy scouting for bodies in the reservoir, while more than 1,000 armed personnel of the CRPF, Greyhound and Special Operation Group (Orissa police) are busy combing the surrounding forests.

Additional director-general of police (operation) Manmohan Praharaj and revenue divisional commissioner of southern division Satyabrata Sahoo are presently camping in Chitrakonda to monitor the arrangements.

“I am expecting a fact-finding report from the additional DG,” said Mishra.

The home secretary preferred to wait for the intelligence reports before commenting on the possibility of an alleged intelligence failure leading to the attack. “Let’s wait for the reports of the high-level inquiry that is being conducted by the Andhra Pradesh police. Then only would it be fair to drive to any conclusion,” Mishra summed up.