A Home Guard died in the Visakhapatnam Agency area on Friday morning, after Maoists allegedly triggered a landmine near the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB).
According to reports, the landmine was remotely triggered around 9.15am when the Home Guard was driving near a tribal hamlet in Ramaraopalem, which comes under the Annavaram police station limits.
Stating that combing operations in the area were intensified after the blast, the Times of India quoted Visakha Rural SP Rahuldev Sarma as saying, "They wanted revenge after the Ramaguda encounter and were waiting for a chance."
Reports add that this is the first sign of Maoist activity since the encounter in October last year.
On October 24, an alleged exchange of fire between police forces and Maoists along the AOB killed 24 people. In the week that followed, continuous combing operations raised the death toll to 31.
The gunbattle also left a Greyhounds commando dead.
Two days after the encounter, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) reportedly termed it a “fake encounter” and threatened to take “revenge” against State Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his son, Nara Lokesh.
Besides this, the Maoists reportedly planted several mines across sensitive areas and strongly condemned the mining of bauxite and other resources in the Agency area.
Director General of Police N Sambasiva Rao had earlier said that a general alert was received from the Union Home Ministry about the increased threat perception to the Andhra Chief Minister, in November last year.
Naidu presently benefits from the 'Z plus' category protection and his security detail includes members from the elite National Security Guard (NSG) apart from the state police's Intelligence Security Wing.
Naidu had survived a claymore mine attack by Maoists on October 1, 2003 in Tirupati, when he was chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
IANS inputs