1 cop killed in Naxal-police encounter

The Naxalites of CPI (Maoist) today struck again and gunned down a police jawan while three others were injured in an encounter near Kandoli village near Bhamragarh, bordering Chhattisgarh, in Gadchiroli district.

The Naxalites of CPI (Maoist) on Friday struck again and gunned down a police jawan while three others were injured in an encounter near Kandoli village near Bhamragarh, bordering Chhattisgarh, in Gadchiroli district.

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According to reports reaching, the encounter began at 4.30 and continued till 6.15 pm when a police party challenged an armed naxalite group that was camping in the area.

Acting on a tip-off that a group of left-wing extremists were camping in Kandoli forest area and planning to carry out an attack against police party, a group of police jawans of C-60, an anti-naxalite squad, reached the area. When the police team reached the jungles, some naxalites opened fire at them. The policemen, who were outnumbered by the heavily armed naxalites, retaliated and their encounter lasted for near two hours.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Viresh Prabhu, the superintendent of police (SP), Gadchiroli also claimed that a couple of naxalites were also injured in the encounter. However, they succeeded to flee from the scene, he added. The police jawan, who was killed in the encounter was identified as: Dhananjan Mhaske (32). Among the injured jawans include: Shankar Kunghati, Sunil Tore and Prashant Meshram. One of them, Sunil Tore sustained severe bullet injuries and was rushed to a private nursing home at Nagpur late tonight.

Prabhu informed that huge explosive was found at the spot. An additional police force was sent in the area and a search operation is on in the jungle.