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Twelve Naxalites of the outlawed People's War group, including three top leaders, escaped into Orissa after an exchange of fire with the police in the forests on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border on Sunday.
The police traced the Naxalites when they were holding a meeting in the forests on the outskirts of Gandhibanda village.
The exchange of fire lasted an hour, after which the Naxalites managed to escape to Orissa. But in the process, they led the police to an arms dump. No casualties were reported on either side.
The Visakhapatnam district police rushed additional forces to intensify the combing operations. The Orissa police was also alerted.
The top leaders who were involved in the encounter were identified as Vinay alias Gopanna, divisional committee secretary; Chedda Bhushanam alias Nagaraju, divisional committee member; and Chalapathi, member of the Andhra-Orissa border special zone platoon.
While Bhushanam and Vinay carry a reward of Rs 300,000 each, Chalapathi was the mastermind behind the blasting of police stations at Anakapalle and Chodavaram in August this year.
The police recovered a cache of arms, ammunition, including grenades, and medical kits.
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