MANDLA: Two Naxals, including a woman, were killed in a gunbattle with police in a forest area of Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district, an official said on Saturday.
The intermittent exchange of fire took place during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, he said.
"Two Maoists, in the age group of 25 to 30, died in the encounter with police. One of them was a woman," Mandla district superintendent of police Yashpal Singh Rajput told PTI over phone.
The exchange of fire started around 7 pm on Friday and continued intermittently till Saturday dawn, he said.
"Police fired around 150 rounds in self defence, while as many shots came from Naxals," he added.
After the gunfight stopped, the police conducted a search of the area, during which bodies of two Naxals were recovered on Saturday morning from the spot located under the jurisdiction of Moti Nullah police station area, Rajput said, adding that the bodies are being sent for post-mortem.
One self loading rifle (SLP), one .303 rifle and one .315 bore rifle were also recovered from the site, he said.
"We also recovered Naxal literature from there," he added.
According to Rajput, this is possibly for the first time that Naxals have been shot dead in MP's Mandla district, located close to Chhattisgarh border.
The SP confirmed that two dalams (groups) of Maoists are active in Mandla.