RAIPUR: Six Maoists, including two women commanders, and two jawans were killed in a fierce gunfight near the forested terrain of Bargum at Aranpur in strife-torn Dantewada district south Chhattisgarh on Saturday. Three security personnel sustained injuries and were airlifted to Raipur for immediate medical attention.
According to the Dantewada superintendent of police Kamal Lochan Kashyap, a joint team comprising central reserve police force (CRPF), special task force (STF) and district reserve guards (DRG) acted on a tip-off and launched a search operation on Saturday morning.
“We got the inputs on Saturday morning from our informers about the presence of some 50 rebels near the Barren forested hills and immediately the operation was planned and executed. The ultras were taken aback and opened fire on the forces. The attack was swiftly retaliated. In the gun-battle six Naxalites were killed and their bodies in uniform were recovered from the encounter site. We also lost two jawans. Naxals had set-up their camp in interior area”, Kashyap told the New Indian Express.
Two constables killed in the rebel attack are Nirmal Netam and Sukram Gawde. The encounter continued for over an hour, the police said. The woman Maoist commanders were identified as Palo (Malangir Area Committee secretary) and Vijje (Malangir Area Committee member). One injured rebel was apprehended from the spot.
The police also recovered one AK-47 assault rifle, a self-loading rifle (SLR), explosives and some items of daily use from the spot.
“The cordon and search operations have been launched in the area with the additional forces having been deployed”, the SP said.
This is the third major encounter this month in the restive Bastar zone. On Thursday two members of outlawed CPI (Maoist) were killed in Narayanpur and on March 11 the armed rebels ambushed a road opening party (ROP) killing twelve CRPF jawans in Sukma.
The left-wing extremism have presence in at least 16 of the 27 districts of the state but are most active in south Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.