Hyderabad, Nov. 20 -- Seven more Maoists were killed on Wednesday in Andhra Pradesh's Maredumilli forests, a day after security forces dealt a major blow to the Left Wing insurgency, with the killing of a top insurgent commander and five other insurgents there on Tuesday. Maoist central committee member Thippiri Tirupati alias Devji, who took over as the general secretary after Namballa Kesava Rao alias Basavaraju's killing in May this year, is believed to be among the seven slain Maoists. Andhra Pradesh's additional director general (intelligence) Mahesh Chandra Laddha said the seven were killed in an exchange of fire with the forces involved in a combing operation in Maredumilli after Tuesday's gun battle. "We are yet to receive the full details of the exchange of fire from the ground. We are still compiling the information," he said amid reports of Devji's killing. He added that security forces were maintaining surveillance. On Tuesday, Madvi Hidma, 50, a Maoist central committee member and commander of its first battalion, his wife, Madakam Raje, 44, and four other Maoists were killed in Maredumilli. Security forces have killed at least 270 Maoists over the past year in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. At least 1,225 have surrendered, and 680, including top leaders, have been arrested. The Union government has set a March 31, 2026, deadline for ending the Maoist insurgency and said that the number of Left-Wing insurgency-hit districts has fallen to 11, from 18 in April. The Andhra Pradesh Police had intensified surveillance along inter-state borders amid intelligence that Maoists planned to shift their base amid sustained anti-insurgency pressure in Chhattisgarh. They received a specific input last week that top Maoist leaders had entered Maredumilli on the Andhra-Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders to revive organisational activities. Security forces launched a targeted operation on Tuesday morning based on this intelligence and killed six Maoists. They recovered two AK-47 rifles, a pistol, a revolver, a single-barreled weapon, ammunition, and kit bags at the scene. As many as 31 people linked to Maoist networks were separately arrested in Andhra Pradesh. The arrestees included nine security guards of Devji....