RAIPUR: Ten Maoists, including three women, were shot dead by security forces in Bastar’s Sukma on Friday. This is the biggest encounter since the Oct 3 gunfight in which 38 Maoists were killed. The Maoist death toll this year has now risen to 207, this week alone accounting for 15 deaths.
An AK-47, an Insas rifle and an SLR were among 10 arms seized on Friday. Maoists’ South Bastar division ‘military in-charge’, Madkam Masa, who carried a bounty of Rs 8 lakh, was eliminated. Five other cadres were identified as divisional ‘small action team’ commander Lakhma Madvi, who had a Rs 5 lakh bounty, platoon 4 member Doodhi Hungi, and cadres Madkam Jitu, Madkam Kosi and Kovasi Kesa, who carried bounties of Rs 2 lakh each.
Four dead Maoists are yet to be identified. Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said the operation was planned on inputs that Maoists were on the move in Bhandarpadar region.
Troops from CRPF and DRG set out to intercept the Maoists in a three-pronged move. A day ago, Odisha police had intercepted a group in Malkangiri trying to cross over to Sukma. One Maoist was killed and other cadres scattered.
Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai said: “Our govt’s priority is progress and security in Bastar.”
| Maoists brand 2 brothers ‘informers’, kill them in T’gana:
Maoists Thursday axed to death 2 tribal brothers, one of them a panchayat secretary, in Telangana’s Mulugu, accusing them of being ‘police informers’, reports Srinath Vudali. Eight Maoists reached the house of Uika Ramesh Peruru, 36, and Uika Arjun, 35, attacked them with an axe, killed them, & escaped, police said. |