Hyderabad, May 20 (IANS) Maoists gunned down two people, including a village head, from Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district, police said Tuesday. Those killed were among four tribals kidnapped by Communist Party of India (Maoist) guerrillas in Bhadrachalam division of the district, bordering Chhattisgarh, in the early hours of Monday.

Police parties, engaged in search operations along the inter-state border, Tuesday found bodies of Kurnavalli village head or ’sarpanch’ K. Narsaiah and K. Kannaiah in the forests of Chhattisgarh.

The remaining two tribals continued to be in Maoist captivity, the police said.

Armed Maoist guerrillas whisked away the four tribals from three villages around midnight, on the suspicion that they were spying for the police.

A large number of rebels from Gothi Koya tribesmen from the Chhattisgarh villages were involved in the kidnapping.

There is still no trace of a tribal youth kidnapped from Tippapuram in Charla mandal, 10 days ago.

The kidnappings were in retaliation to the March 18 encounter in which the police forces of the two states gunned down 17 Maoists in Chhattisgarh forests. Majority of the dead were from Andhra Pradesh. CPI (Maoist) claimed that the gun battle was ’stage managed’.