RAIPUR: At least three Maoists, all women, were gunned down by security forces on the border of Kanker and Narayanpur districts in Bastar region, police said on Thursday.
This is the first major gunfight in over a month and takes the number of Maoists killed this year to 192 – an average of almost one a day. Five days ago, Union home minister Amit Shah had said the time had come for a “final ruthless blow” to eradicate Left Wing Extremism from the country.
According to Narayanpur SP Prabhat Singh, police were alerted to the presence of 40-50 Maoists of ‘Partapur area committee’ and Company No.5 in dense jungles near Hachekoti, Chindpur, Binagunda, Kaknar and Aadnar villages. This remote region is around 300km from Raipur and close to the Maharashtra border.
A joint team of District Reserve Guards, Special Task Force and Border Security Force set out from different camps in Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts on Tuesday. They ran into brief skirmishes with Maoists on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning, a full blown firefight erupted.
Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said that the encounter broke out around 8am and went on till 1pm. When the area was searched, three women cadres were found dead. They were in Maoist uniform, said police.
Police suspect the trio was with PLGA Company 5. Their identities are being ascertained. Security forces recovered a .303 rifle, a .315 rifle, explosives and Maoist material from the encounter site. All the jawans are reported safe and they pressed on with the search operation, the IG said.
A statement by Sundarraj said that 26 Maoist bodies have been recovered in Bastar region during monsoon operations this year, while 212 were arrested and 201 Naxals surrendered.
Thursday’s encounter comes in the wake of back-to-back murder of civilians by Maoists in Bijapur district – three in five days, including the brother of a policeman. Prior to this, Maoists murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy and his 19-year-old brother, a week apart, in a remote village in Sukma.
The last major operation before this was on July 20 in Sukma, where a Maoist was killed.
According to a senior police officer, operations in Bastar had slowed down because rivers and rivulets were in spate due to very heavy rain. It makes movement even more treacherous in Bastar, especially in hilly regions.
“It’s very different in Bastar. Water flows over bridges and recedes only in the second week of September. It could appear like a brief lull in operations due to monsoon but the strikes will continue,” the officer said.
This is the first major gunfight in over a month and takes the number of Maoists killed this year to 192 – an average of almost one a day. Five days ago, Union home minister Amit Shah had said the time had come for a “final ruthless blow” to eradicate Left Wing Extremism from the country.
According to Narayanpur SP Prabhat Singh, police were alerted to the presence of 40-50 Maoists of ‘Partapur area committee’ and Company No.5 in dense jungles near Hachekoti, Chindpur, Binagunda, Kaknar and Aadnar villages. This remote region is around 300km from Raipur and close to the Maharashtra border.
A joint team of District Reserve Guards, Special Task Force and Border Security Force set out from different camps in Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts on Tuesday. They ran into brief skirmishes with Maoists on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning, a full blown firefight erupted.
Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said that the encounter broke out around 8am and went on till 1pm. When the area was searched, three women cadres were found dead. They were in Maoist uniform, said police.
Police suspect the trio was with PLGA Company 5. Their identities are being ascertained. Security forces recovered a .303 rifle, a .315 rifle, explosives and Maoist material from the encounter site. All the jawans are reported safe and they pressed on with the search operation, the IG said.
A statement by Sundarraj said that 26 Maoist bodies have been recovered in Bastar region during monsoon operations this year, while 212 were arrested and 201 Naxals surrendered.
Thursday’s encounter comes in the wake of back-to-back murder of civilians by Maoists in Bijapur district – three in five days, including the brother of a policeman. Prior to this, Maoists murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy and his 19-year-old brother, a week apart, in a remote village in Sukma.
The last major operation before this was on July 20 in Sukma, where a Maoist was killed.
According to a senior police officer, operations in Bastar had slowed down because rivers and rivulets were in spate due to very heavy rain. It makes movement even more treacherous in Bastar, especially in hilly regions.
“It’s very different in Bastar. Water flows over bridges and recedes only in the second week of September. It could appear like a brief lull in operations due to monsoon but the strikes will continue,” the officer said.