RAIPUR: A woman Maoist was killed in an encounter with security forces in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, as part of a large-scale anti-Naxal operation currently underway in the region, police said on Tuesday.
Police said that the body of the deceased is yet to identified and a combing operation is going on.
Inspector General of Police, Bastar range, Sunderaj O said that the encounter took place on Monday night in the dense forests surrounding the Karregutta hills along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border.
With this latest encounter, the total number of women Maoists killed in the area since April 21 has risen to four. Security forces recovered a .303 rifle from the encounter site.
Earlier, on April 24, three women Naxalites were gunned down in the same region, and a significant cache of weapons, explosives, and other materials was seized.
The operation, described as one of the largest counter-insurgency missions in Bastar, involves around 24,000 personnel from various units, including Chhattisgarh Police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and its elite CoBRA unit.
Authorities launched the offensive following intelligence inputs about the presence of top Maoist leaders, including those from the Telangana state committee and the heavily armed ‘battalion number 1’—regarded as the strongest military wing of the Maoists.
{{/usCountry}}Authorities launched the offensive following intelligence inputs about the presence of top Maoist leaders, including those from the Telangana state committee and the heavily armed ‘battalion number 1’—regarded as the strongest military wing of the Maoists.
{{/usCountry}}According to police, the Karregutta hill range serves as a stronghold for the battalion. Intelligence reports suggest that several senior cadres have been either killed or critically injured during the operation.
So far, hundreds of Maoist hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed, and large quantities of explosives, detonators, food supplies, and daily-use items have been recovered.
Six security personnel from STF, DRG, and CoBRA units sustained injuries in separate pressure IED blast incidents but are reported to be out of danger.