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The police recovered on Tuesday 500 of the 1,500 bags of rice looted from two villages in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh by Naxalites of the outlawed People's War group a day earlier.
Thirty villagers have been taken into custody in connection with the incident and efforts are on to recover the remaining bags.
In two separate incidents, the Naxalites had looted 1,500 bags of rice meant for the 'food for work' programme from two villages in Dachepalli block and one village in Bollapalli block on Monday.
In the first incident, 30 armed PW members cut the power supply and telephone lines to Ramapuram and Srinagar villages and raided the godowns there.
They lifted 930 bags from Ramapuram and 504 bags from the godowns of fair-price shop dealers V Rangaiah and T Satyanarayana in Srinagar.
The Naxalites then conducted a gram sabha (village council), distributing the rice among the 200-odd villagers who had accompanied them on the raids.
In the second incident, 20 armed Naxalites raided Gummanampadu village in Bollapalli block and looted 105 bags of rice from the village panchayat office.
They then hijacked a bus belonging to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation after threatening the driver and the conductor. They loaded the bags on the bus and drove straight into the Gandiganumula forest.
After unloading the stocks in the forest, they returned to the village and handed the bus back to the driver.
The Naxalites left a written message on the statistical record sheet of the conductor stating that they had taken the bus to distribute the rice among the poor, who were suffering on account of the severe drought conditions in the state.
Special police sorties were rushed to the forest area and nearby villages, but they narrowly missed the Naxalites. But they managed to recover 105 bags of rice from the Gandiganumula forest and another 400 bags from Ramapuram and Srinagar villages.
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