Gariaband: The bodies of two more Naxalites were recovered in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district, where an encounter took place over the last two days between the security forces and Maoists, police said Wednesday.
With this, the number of Naxalites killed during the operation has risen to 16, they said.
“The bodies of two more Naxalites were recovered Wednesday during a search of the encounter site. The search operation was still underway in the area,” a police official said.
With this, the toll of Naxalites killed in the operation rose to 16, including six women, he said.
At least 17 automatic and other firearms, including an AK-47 rifle and one Self Loading Rifle (SLR), were recovered from the encounter site. Besides, more than two dozen improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by Naxalites in the area were neutralised by the security forces during the operation, he said.
The identity of the killed cadres is yet to be established, he added.
Tuesday, the police said that 14 Naxalites, including a top CPI (Maoists) leader who was carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 crore on his head, were killed in a joint operation by the central and state police forces in Mainpur police station (Gariaband) area along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border.
Two security personnel – one belonging to CoBRA and another from the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Odisha police, were injured in the same operation.
The official said the operation was launched on the night of January 19 based on intelligence about the presence of Maoists belonging to two area committees under Dhamtari-Gariaband-Nuapada division which operates within Odisha State Committee of Maoists, on the Kularighat-Bhaludiggi forested hill of Chhattisgarh, just 10 km from the border of Odisha’s Nuapada district.
Personnel belonging to E-30 (a Gariaband district police unit), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and SOG from the Odisha Police were involved in the operation, he said.
Police had said that two women Naxalites were killed during the operation Monday, while a fresh exchange of firing took place late that night which continued till the early hours of Tuesday, in which 12 more Naxalites were gunned down.
The operation has been underway for the last 72 hours in the area, they said.
Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district superintendent of police Nikhil Rakhecha earlier said that of the deceased, one has been identified as Ramachandra Reddy alias Jairam alias Chalpati, a central committee member of the CPI (Maoist), who was carrying a bounty of Rs 1 crore. He hailed from Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier in the day, the bodies of 14 dead Naxalites were brought to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital in Raipur for the post-mortem.
With this encounter, 42 Naxalites have been killed in separate gunfights in Chhattisgarh this year.
January 16, as many as 12 Naxalites were killed by security forces in Bijapur district. Later, Maoists, in a statement, admitted that 18 cadres were killed in the January 16 gunfight.
Last year, 219 Naxalites were neutralised by security forces in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh.
PTI
