In a major success, the security forces gunned down two Naxalites in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Saturday, police said. Providing details about the encounter, Sukma Superintendent of Police (SP) Kiran Chavan said that the gunfight took place on Saturday morning in a forest under the Kistaram police station area.
The encounter ensued while a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation. SP Chavan said that the personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action — an elite unit of the CRPF) are involved in the operation. The operation was launched on Friday based on inputs about the presence of Naxalites in the area.
So far, the bodies of two Naxalites have been recovered from the encounter site, and a search operation was still underway in the area, the official added.
It must be noted that with this encounter, 83 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate skirmishes in the state so far this year. Of them, 67 were killed in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Sukma.
22 Naxalites arrested
Earlier on Thursday, the police said that 22 Naxalites were arrested, and explosives were seized from them in separate operations carried out in two districts of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh. The officials added that while 18 of these Naxalites were held from three places in the Bijapur district on Thursday, four others were arrested in Sukma on Tuesday.
"Security personnel apprehended 10 lower-rung cadres from a forest of Gunjeparti village under the Usur police station limits in Bijpaur district during the anti-Naxal operation," an official said. The local police and 201, 204, 205, 206 and 210 battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)'s elite unit Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) were out on an operation, he said.
(With PTI Inputs)
