BHUBANESWAR: A Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel sustained injuries during an exchange of fire with Naxals in Odisha's Nuapada district in the wee hours of Monday.
On receiving information about the presence of the red ultras, police launched an operation in the Nuapada district bordering Chattisgarh. Sources said at about 3 am, the security personnel noticed a group of red ultras in Sunabeda forest near Shivanarayanpur within Komna police limits.
Subsequently, an exchange of fire (EOF) broke out between Odisha Police's SOG personnel and the members of the banned CPI (Maoist).
"One SOG personnel sustained bullet injuries and he was shifted to Raipur in Chhattisgarh for treatment. His health condition is stated to be stable," said ADG (Operations), Dev Datta Singh.
Another team present in nearby hilly terrain also launched an area domination exercise on Monday morning.
The team spotted 10 to 12 Naxals at about 8 am and the area was over 2 km away from the place where an exchange of fire had taken place a few hours before.
There was again an exchange of fire between the security forces and the Maoists. "Taking advantage of dense forests, the Naxals managed to escape. It is suspected that a few ultras could have sustained bullet injuries when there was an exchange of fire for the second time," said Singh.
During searches, 10 improvised explosive devices, one loaded pistol and other incriminating articles were recovered from the spot. Combing operation is continuing in the area, said police sources. Odisha Police have tighetened the security in the districts affected by left-wing extremism (LWE) to ensure the elections pass off smoothly.
ADG (Operations) Dev Datta Singh is camping in Boudh to oversee the anti-Naxal operations in the LWE affected districts of Odisha. To esnure the insurgents are not able to disrupt the polling process or intimidate the voters, the police have carried out 1,842 anti-Naxal operations since January this year.