RAIPUR: The security forces engaged in the ongoing anti-Maoist campaign in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district, adjoining Odisha border, had recovered two more bodies of the red rebels, including one female, on Wednesday.
“The casualty figure of Maoists has risen to 16 including six females. The process of identification of bodies is still on. The search operation by the joint team of security forces has been continuing in the region for the past 78 hours”, Nikhil Rakhecha, Gariaband district police chief told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, the bodies of 14 Maoist cadres neutralised in Gariaband district were brought to the state government’s biggest healthcare facility Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Hospital on Wednesday.
A team of 22 doctors and supporting staff carried out the autopsy. The details of the post-mortem were not shared with the media.
“There were not adequate doctors and forensic experts in Gariaband district. So, the bodies of Maoists were brought to the state capital where the required health professionals, paramedical staff are available for the autopsies”, an official said.
A forensic expert informed that an autopsy including the X-ray of a body usually takes approximately two hours. X-rays would be initially carried out on each body to ensure there is nothing suspicious inside.
In a significant blow to the outlawed (Maoist), its Central Committee member Jayram Pratap Reddy alias Chalapathi and 13 senior cadres were killed in a gun battle with security forces along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border in Mainpur forest of Gariaband, around 160 km east of Raipur. Two jawans sustained injuries in the gunfight.
So far, 48 Maoists have been killed in separate encounters in different districts of Chhattisgarh in the month of January.
Last year, the Maoists suffered the biggest setback in their revolutionary history in conflict-ridden Bastar where 219 bodies of Maoists have been recovered after they were neutralised by security forces in separate encounters in south Chhattisgarh.