Security forces killed at least eight Maoists, including five women, on Friday in a forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, police said, after 39 rebels were gunned down in neighbouring Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli earlier this week.
No security personnel was injured in the gunfight that took place in a forest near Ipenta village of the district, 500km away from the state’s capital, Bijapur’s superintendent of police Mohit Garg said.
Security forced recovered eight bodies after the gunbattle, Gard added.
Garg said a joint squad of Greyhounds, an elite anti-Maoist unit of the Telangana Police, and security personnel from Chhattisgarh launched a combing operation on Thursday in the forests along the inter-state border following a tip-off about the presence of Maoists.
“We are also conducting massive combing operations in the forest and we are likely to get more positive results soon,” special director general (anti-Maoist operations) DM Awasthi said.
Awasthi added that the Greyhounds and Telangana police intelligence unit played a crucial role in the operation.
The bodies of the Maoists, said to be active in Usoor and Basaguda area of Bijapur’s Ipenta forest, were airlifted to Bijapur and the process to identify them was underway, the police said.
{{/usCountry}}The bodies of the Maoists, said to be active in Usoor and Basaguda area of Bijapur’s Ipenta forest, were airlifted to Bijapur and the process to identify them was underway, the police said.
{{/usCountry}}Police also recovered six rocket launchers, an automatic rifle, a revolver, three grenades, four pairs of camouflage uniforms and 10 kits from the spot, officials said.
Ten Maoists were killed in the Tadapalagutta-Pujari Kanker forests, bordering Telangana, on March 2. Six women were among the rebels killed in that incident.
Barely 10 days, Maoists blew up an anti-landmine vehicle of the Central Reserve Police Force by using over 50 kg of improvised explosive device (IED) killing nine security personnel.