Friday, February 11 2005 13:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: In the first such major strike by naxalites, six Karnataka State Reserve Police personnel (KSRP) and a civilian were killed and five injured when heavily armed naxalite gangs attacked the KSRP camp at Venkammanahali in Tumkur District on the State's border with Andhra Pradesh.

In the operation late last night (Feb 10, 2005), about 110 naxals from Andhra Pradesh came in three vans, shot dead the sentry at the camp in a school building and fired indiscriminately at the KSRP men inside, DGP S N Borkar told reporters in Bangalore.

The KSRP men retaliated with their single barrel gun as the naxalite gangs armed with AK-47 and grenades fired indiscriminately, he said.

Borkar said that it was likely that some naxalites might also have been killed and their bodies taken away by their gangs.

Some 30 KSRP men were at the camp where they had returned after carrying out the combing operation in Pavagada taluk bordering naxal-infested areas of Andhra Pradesh.

Today's (Feb 11, 2005) attack comes within days after the Karnataka Police shot dead a top naxal leader Saketh Rajan alias Prem and his associate in Chikamagalur district last week.

Within hours of the strike, the Karnataka Government decided to crack the whip and announced the setting up of two anti-naxal squads to carry out the operations in Malnad areas and the plains.

Speaking to reporters after reviewing the situation with top Home Department and Police officials this morning, Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said the squads headed by a DIG would each have strength of 250 men.

One squad would tackle the naxal menace in the Malnad districts of Chikamagalur, Mangalore and Udupi, where the naxals have been trying to gain a foothold and the other in Bidar, Gulbarga, Tumkur, Raichur, Bellary and Kolar districts.

Singh said he would also brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who would arrive in Bangalore this afternoon on a two-day visit to the State, on the naxal activities and also meet his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh Rajashekhara Reddy to discuss joint operation by both States against naxalites.

Asserting that there was "no confusing stand" on the part of the Government in dealing with the naxalites, Singh said, "Earlier, we had sympathies and we had a dialogue. Now, no more sympathies."

After the last week's encounter, Singh had ruled out the possibility of sending the Special Task Force "immediately" to hunt down the naxalites but had said if the situation warranted, they would be deployed.

As the encounter came under attack from the human rights groups as "a fake one", the Government had announced that the State Development Commissioner Chiranjeevi Singh would inquire into the incident.

Angered over a threatening letter written in Telugu left by naxalities while fleeing Venkammanahalli that they would "return again" to attack, Singh declared that the Government would hereafter deal with naxals "ruthlessly".

Flaying the attitude of "so called intellectuals", who rallied behind naxals, Singh wanted them to introspect after last night's attack on police.

"The so-called intellectuals cannot defend the naxals cause now", Singh said.

"Since naxals are working in an organised manner, police would be asked to be more vigilant," he said and added that there would be no dearth of funds in tackling the menace.