Bhopal: At least eight suspected Maoists and two jawans were on Monday killed in an encounter in south Bastar district of Sukma. According to the director general of police (Naxal operation), Chhattisgarh, D.M. Awasthi, a joint search party raided a Maoist camp in Sakler jungle following Intelligence inputs on presence of a large number of Naxals including some senior leaders.
Later a fierce encounter ensued between them that lasted nearly one and half hours.
The encounters took place in the forests of Kistaram, bordering Telangana, and Chintagufa, both in south Sukma, during an anti-Maoist push, titled “Operation Prahar IV”, involving over 1,200 troopers, D.M. Awasthi, Chhattisgarh Special Director General of Police (Anti Naxal Operations), said Monday evening.
He said several teams of the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the CRPF’s elite CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), along with Telangana police, launched the operation late Sunday night in the forests of Sakler, Tondamarka and Saletong villages.
South Sukma is considered a stronghold of the Naxal’s “military battalion number 1” and the target area is located on the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh’s Sukma and Bijapur districts and Telangana’s Kothagudem district, the DG said.
When a patrolling team of the DRG was cordoning off a forest patch at around 9:40 am Monday near Sakler village under the Kistaram police station limit, it came under Naxal fire leading to a gun battle, Awasthi said.
Eight Naxals and two DRG personnel, Dirdo Rama and Madvi Joga, were killed in the encounter and an Air Force MI-17 helicopter was dispatched to airlift the bodies, he said. —PTI
