Overview
- Police said the early-morning exchange of fire occurred between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. in Maredumilli forest, Alluri Sitarama Raju district, near the Andhra–Chhattisgarh–Odisha border.
- Andhra Pradesh’s Greyhounds and local police led the joint operation after weeks of specific intelligence on Maoist movement across the tri-junction forests.
- Authorities identified the dead as Madvi Hidma, his wife Madakam Raje, and four others—Deve, Lakmal (Chaitu), Malla (Mallalu) and Kamlu (Kamlesh)—with postmortems underway.
- Weapons and explosive materials were seized at the site, including two AK‑47 rifles, a pistol, a revolver, a single-bore weapon, detonators and fuse wire, as combing continues for fugitives.
- Hidma, a CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member linked by security agencies to at least 26 lethal attacks, was long viewed as the PLGA Battalion No. 1 chief, and officials say his death deepens the insurgents’ leadership vacuum as wider arrests were reported in nearby districts.