The Greyhounds’ last leap
Created in 1989 to take on Maoists in the forests of undivided Andhra Pradesh, the Greyhounds became a specialised counter-insurgency force. Over three decades later, as the insurgency recedes, Abhinay Deshpande revisits the force’s battles and its losses, the legacy of a war that shaped it, and how the Greyhounds are preparing for a future beyond the Maoist conflict
On November 30, 1992, 26-year-old N.V. Satya Srinivas Rao of the Andhra Pradesh Police entered a house in Baddepalli with three other Greyhounds personnel to apprehend a group of Naxals. They encountered a commander named Sardar, who had taken cover behind his fallen comrades as protection. Despite being wounded, the Naxal continued to fire at Rao.
The bulletproof jacket he wore prevented the initial bullet from harming him but, during the second shot, a bullet found a gap in the jacket and entered his abdomen. Rao fought for nearly a quarter-century before he was discharged from the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad on Christmas day.
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