Another Maoist killed in Chhattisgarh encounter: Police

Raipur: A day after seven Maoists were killed in an encounter, another Maoist, a woman, was killed in a gunfight with security personnel in a forest along the Narayanpur-Bijapur district, police said.

Police said that the encounter took place when a team of Special Task Force (STF) were returning to Dantewada district after Thursday’s anti-Naxal operation.

The STF personnel were part of a joint squad of security forces that had killed seven Maoists in an encounter in the Pallewaya-Handawada area along the Bijapur-Narayanpur.

“After Thursday’s encounter, security personnel were returning to their base when Maoists opened fire on a patrolling team, leading to an encounter. After the firing stopped, the body of a woman Maoist in uniform was recovered from the spot,” said Kamalochan Kashyap, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) (South Bastar) in a press conference on Friday.

Kashyap said that altogether eight Maoists were killed in this operation, including four women cadres, which was launched on May 21. The firing between the security personnel and Maoists continued from Thursday 11am to Friday 9am. The process of identification of the Maoists is going on, he added.

The police forces of Narayanpur, Bastar and Dantewada, along with security forces, had launched the operation based on the input that a senior Maoist leader, the divisional commander, along with 60 Maoists are camping in the Pallewaya-Handawada area.

“We have also busted a training camp of Maoists in Rekavaya village. We seized one 303 rifle, one 305, two 12-bore guns, and four muzzle-loading rifles (Bharmaar), cooker bombs, wireless set and other items”, DIG Kashyap said.

Police have also detained a few suspects venturing near the encounter spot. “Some people changed clothes and tried to mingle with villagers as they had done in earlier encounters. These people have been detained and are being questioned”, the DIG added.

With the latest incident, 113 Maoists have been killed so far this year in separate encounters with security forces in the state.