VZCZCXRO6384
OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0193 1821310
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 301310Z JUN 08
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2052
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0447
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2510

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000193 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER MARR KCRM SOCI PGOV ASEC IN
SUBJECT: MAOISTS IN ORISSA AMBUSH COUNTER INSURGENCY UNIT AND 
BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED 39 PARAMILITARY POLICE 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  On Sunday June 29, 36 commandos from Andhra 
Pradesh's elite counter-insurgency Greyhound force were missing 
after Maoist rebels ambushed a boat carrying the group on the 
Balimela reservoir in Orissa's remote Malkangiri district.  Also 
missing were three Orissa police escorts.  Although the Orissa 
administration has not pronounced them dead officially, the 
Orissa Home Secretary told post that all the 39 were presumed 
dead.  Twenty-six Greyhound men escaped the ambush and swam two 
miles before being rescued.  Loss of 36 highly-trained commandos 
is a setback for the efforts to fight against the Maoist 
insurgency in eastern India.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) The June 29 Maoist ambush on the Greyhound unit took 
place at around 10:30 in the morning on the Balimela reservoir 
in Orissa's Malkangiri district.  The virtually inaccessible 
terrain - known as the "Cut-off Point" - is about 450 miles 
Southwest of Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar.  A 60-member 
Greyhound company, along with a team of Orissa's Special 
Operations Group (SOG) had gone to a village called Patparmetla, 
located about 50 miles from the district headquarters town of 
Malkangiri, to conduct patrolling operations against Maoist 
rebels.  After the exercise, the SOG group started back towards 
Bhubaneswar by road. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Greyhound group took a boat and was heading towards 
Andhra Pradesh, moving along the Balimela reservoir.  On the 
way, the boat had to pass through a narrow gap with hills on 
either side.  As it was passing through this narrow point, the 
boat came under heavy gunfire from automatic weapons.  Grenades 
were also lobbed at the group.  The Greyhound forces retaliated. 
 Unconfirmed reports from Bhubaneswar indicated the boat 
capsized after it was hit by rockets fired from 
rocket-launchers.  Orissa Home Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra told 
post that there was no use of rockets but that there was heavy 
automatic gunfire.  The boat capsized in water depths of about 
100 ft. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Contacts raised questions to Post as to how such a 
trained counter-insurgency group could be trapped in an ambush. 
Apparently, the group had gone into a cluster of villages which 
the Maoist rebels had declared a "liberated zone."  Prior to the 
operation, no helicopter was deployed, the area was not 
sanitized and the group had no local guide to escort it out of 
the Cut-off area.  Orissa's Malkangiri district is a 
tri-junction with Chhattisgarh in the West and Andhra Pradesh in 
the South - all known Maoist strongholds. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The rugged terrain makes the Balimela reservoir a 
difficult area to access.  Contacts in Bhubaneswar said that the 
Greyhound group was desperate to get back to their base as they 
had run out of food and water and could not source supplies 
locally as the locals were sympathetic to the Maoists. 
Contacts, quoting private conversations with Orissa Police 
officials, said that the Maoists intercepted the Greyhound 
group's radio conversation about the group's movement, bearings 
and lack of food and water as the personnel continued to talk 
over unsecure frequencies. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT:  The loss of counter-insurgency personnel will 
be a setback for Orissa and Andhra Pradesh's efforts against the 
Maoists.  While the Orissa Police and the state administration 
are tightlipped about the circumstances of the massacre, the 
Balimela ambush clearly shows that the rebels have the capacity 
to effectively integrate local intelligence and firepower to 
destroy in a single engagement a sizeable security unit. 
 
JARDINE