The Chhattisgarh police on Wednesday said the Maoists have acknowledged losing 247 of their cadres in encounters with security forces over the last two years.
The figure is 39 more than that with the state police, according to Special Director General (anti-Maoist operations) DM Awasthi.
Addressing a press conference, Awasthi said the Maoist casualty figure has been given out in a “press release” issued by the banned CPI(Maoist).
However, he did not share with the media the press release he was quoting from.
“According to a press release issued by the South Sub-Regional Bureau of Maoists, 247 ultras were killed between August 2016 and July 2018 in Chhattisgarh,” he said.
The police officer said the press release was issued by the ultras on the occasion of the “martyrs’ week” from July 28.
The police records showed that bodies of 208 ultras were recovered between August 2016 and July 2018, he said, adding the press release suggests that 39 more had died and their bodies had been retrieved by the Maoists from the encounter sites.
Awasthi said the Maoists have also acknowledged that their top-ranking cadres were gunned down in at least 400 encounters with security forces in the last two years.
{{/usCountry}}Awasthi said the Maoists have also acknowledged that their top-ranking cadres were gunned down in at least 400 encounters with security forces in the last two years.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s a record that 247 Maoists were killed in the state in just two years. The credit goes to intelligence-based offensive operations conducted by the security forces in the core areas of Maoists,” the Special DG said.
“We changed our strategy two years ago and decided to hit ultras in their core bastion. The state forces in coordination with the Central forces have conducted successful offensive operations in cores areas of Maoists based on the inputs provides by state’s Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) and the intelligence Bureau (IB),” he said.
Security forces recovered 678 weapons, including a Light Machine Gun (LMG), nine AK-47 rifles, 20 Insas rifles and 12 SLR rifles, from the arrested as well as surrendered ultras and from 518 encounters since January 2016, he said.
He said a total of 137 security personnel were killed in the “Maoist incidents” during the last two-and-a-half years.
Awasthi said as many as 2834 Maoists were arrested while 1852 surrendered before the police in the above period.
“Besides, 692 Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were recovered in the last two-and-a-half years,” he added.