The Maoists have of late started building bases in Balaghat jungles following pressures mounted on them in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra
Bhopal: Four Maoists including three women were on Wednesday gunned down in a forest in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district, bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, police said.
The encounter took place near the Raunda camp of Supkhar forest area when a joint search party comprising personnel of Hawk force, a counterinsurgency wing of Madhya Pradesh police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) came under attack by a group of armed Maoists camping in the jungle this morning, police said.
“Acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of a group of armed Maoists in the forest area, a joint search operation was launched by the security forces. An exchange of fire took place between them when the security forces came under attack by Maoists”, Balaghat district additional superintendent of police Vijay Darbar said.
The joint team later recovered the bodies of four Naxals including three women along with an INSAS rifle, one self-loaded rifle (SLR) and a .303 rifle at the encounter site, he added.
The search operation was still on in the area, police said.
The slain Naxals were yet to be identified.
However, the recovery of two automatic weapons suggests that at least two of the three deceased ultras might be senior Maoists, police said.
The Maoists have of late started building bases in Balaghat jungles following pressures mounted on them in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra.
Over two dozen senior Maoists have been killed in separate anti-Naxal operations in Balaghat district in the last five years.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav hailed the security forces for the successful counterinsurgency operation and vowed that the state would not allow Naxalism to grow on the soil of Madhya Pradesh.
