10 Naxals killed in Chhattisgarh encounter

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Malkangiri/Raipur: At least ten Maoists were reported to have been killed in an encounter with security forces in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh Thursday.
According to police sources, the encounter took place in a forest under Bhairamgarh police station of Bijapur district when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxal operation, Chhattisgarh Director General of Police DM Awasthi told reporters.
“Police received specific inputs about the presence of Maoist divisional committee members Rajman Mandavi and Sukhlal with 50-60 cadres in the interiors of Bhairamgarh where they were conducting a training camp for the lower-rung cadres,’’ he said.
Acting on a tip-off, around 200 members of the combined squad of the Special Task Force and the District Reserve Guard launched the operation Wednesday night, he said.
“When the patrolling team was in the forest near Borga village, around 450 km from Raipur, the Naxals opened fire on them at 11 am Thursday leading to the gun-battle,” he said.
“The intermittent firing lasted for two-and-a-half hours. When the exchange of fire ended, bodies of 10 uniform-clad Naxals were recovered from the spot along with 11 muzzle loading guns and a 315 bore revolver,’’ Awasthi said.
A large cache of explosives was also recovered from the spot, he said. Terming it as a successful intelligence-based operation in the beginning of 2019, Awasthi said such operations will continue.
Reinforcement has been rushed to the spot to assist the patrolling team to evacuate the bodies, he said.
“The identity of the killed Naxals and other details will be known once the security forces return,” he added.
This is the first major anti-Naxal operation since the Congress government came to power in the state. The new regime has said it will hold talks with the affected stakeholders in the Left Wing Extremism areas to end the Naxal menace.