hyderabad eight armed naxalites of the cpiml chandrapulla reddy bata faction a newlyformed leftwing splinter extremist group in telangana were shot dead by police in an exchange of fire on thursday morning in tekulapally forest near bodu village of bhadradrikothagudem district of telanganaout of the eight bodies six were identified the groups district secretary was killed in the encounter its state secretary is however at large police found slrs hand grenades kit bags with leftwing revolutionary literature including the books on mao from the naxalites most of the slain extremists were previously working with the janashakti group the splinter group was formed by former janashakti group leader kura rajannathe regrouped naxalites were involved in extortion of businessmen dealt in private land settlements and attempted murders in four districts of telanganapolice said the trijunction of the bhupalapally kothagudem and mahabubabad districts is the area of operation of the groupbhadradri kothagudem district sp ambar kishor jha told toi we received information that around 10 to 12 armed naxalites were on the prowl in the bodu forest area the local police started combing operations around 630 am the police party spotted armed men in olive green uniform our men asked them to surrender refusing the naxalites opened fire the police team then opened retaliatory fire we found eight bodies at the scenewe believe that more members of the group are still underground two months ago in the same bodu police station area there was an exchange of fire and we apprehended one person and recovered four to five weapons this time too we wanted to apprehend them but they refused to give up and opened fire resulting in the encounter he addedsix naxals out of the eight identifiedout of eight slain naxalites six have been identified the identified naxals are etti kumar alias rakhi of marrigudem in kothagudem who was the secretary of manugurukothagudem area committee jakketi pravin kumar alias azad a dalam member and a resident of dharmaram of mancherial district nunavath arjun alias naveen of sarapaka in bhadradri kothagudem district boina omprakash alias ganesh of pedda yellapuram of mahabubabad district esam naresh alias sudarshan of kadavatancha of mahabubabad district turkeli madhu a resident of gundala in bhadradari kothagudem district