Two CoBRA commandos of the CRPF were injured in an encounter with Naxals in Sukma, Chhattisgarh, said the officials on Tuesday. CRPF jawans were securing a forward base set up in a remote jungle area of Sukma district when the gunfight began, they added. Injured security personnel have been rushed to a nearby medical facility and were stable.
The incident took place at the Gomguda forward operating base (FOB) of the Central Reserve Police Force that was established by the troops on Sunday.
The FOB belongs to the 241st battalion of the paramilitary force and is located under the Chintalnar Police Station area. The troops mounted effective retaliation, officials said.
The CRPF is continuously establishing FOBs inside deep and remote jungle areas to take on Maoists and take on them in the unchartered areas of the south Bastar region, about 400 km from capital Raipur. It has established over 40 such FOBs in Chhattisgarh over the last two years. The Union government has declared it will end the Naxal menace by March 2026 from the country.
Five Naxals arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district
Earlier on December 21, five Naxalites, two of them carrying a cumulative reward of Rs 4 lakh, were arrested in the Sukma district.
Muchaki Hunga, alias Jatti, Kawasi Gangi, Madvi Hinga and two others were nabbed by the security forces near a forest in Duleda village under the Chintagufa police station limits during anti-Naxal operation, an official said.
Jatti belonged to the Pidmel Revolutionary Party Committee (RPC) of the Maoist organisation, while Kawasi Gangi was the president of the outfit’s Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan. The two carried a total bounty of Rs 2 lakh, he said.
Madvi was the president of the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Majdoor Sangathan (DAKMS) under the Metaguda RPC, he said.
The five were involved in the killing of a villager this year whom the Naxals accused of being a police informer, the official said. Jatti was also involved in several other instances of Maoist violence, he added.