HYDERABAD/DELHI: A helicopter carrying the chief minister of India’s Andhra Pradesh state disappeared on Wednesday over an area held by Maoist rebels, triggering a huge land-and-air search, officials said.
Indian Air Force aircraft joined the hunt for Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, when his helicopter lost radio contact after it took off from the state capital Hyderabad, a military spokesman said.
“Right now we can only pray,” Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in the national capital New Delhi. Police, backed by paramilitary troopers, were on their way to join the search for Reddy’s aircraft which was believed to have crashed, he said.
Finance Minister K. Rosaiah told a news conference in Hyderabad the helicopter carrying the chief minister and others remained untraced.
He appealed to the people in the forest, tribal and remote areas in Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Krishna, Prakasam and Chittoor districts to try to locate the helicopter.
Reddy, who belongs to India’s ruling Congress party, had been leading a vigorous military campaign to smash strongholds of outlawed Maoist rebels who dominate wide swathes of coastal Andhra Pradesh. The civilian US-made Bell helicopter was carrying four people, including the chief minister and his principal secretary when it went missing over a heavily wooded remote area, officials said.
“The helicopter search has been stopped for the time being because of bad light but a search on foot has started by forest officers in areas where the missing helicopter was last seen,” Chidambaram told reporters.
— With input from agencies
