RAIPUR: Security forces have neutralised a Maoist cadre during the ongoing search operation in Chhattisgarh's strife-torn Bijapur district, about 400 km south of Raipur, the Bastar police said on Saturday.
“Acting on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of senior cadres of the banned outfit in the forested terrain of Indravati National Park area of Bijapur, a joint team of security forces left for a search operation on Friday," stated the police.
"The intermittent firing continues between the troops and the Maoists. So far, a male Maoist body has been recovered by forces along with weapons from the encounter site”, the police added.
Additional details were not divulged owing to the security concerns for the security personnel engaged in the anti-Maoist campaign in the region, as the search operation is ongoing.
In the last 18 months, as many as 415 Maoist cadres have been killed in various encounters in the Bastar Range.
Shah has declared that the country will be Maoist-free by March 31, 2026. In this context, the series of encounters against the left-wing extremists remains a part of the renewed strategy to free the Chhattisgarh state from the influence of Maoists.
Early this year on 9 February in one of the biggest offensives planned in Chhattisgarh, at least thirty-one Maoists in uniform were killed in the fierce gun battle with the security forces close to the core Indravati National Park region in Bijapur.
Bijapur, among the seven Maoist-affected districts in the Bastar zone, is cited as an epicentre of Red rebels in south Chhattisgarh.
