Bijapur, May 10 -- As many as 12 Naxalites were gunned down in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Friday, police said, taking the number of left-wing extremists killed so far this year in the state to 103.
Two security personnel were also injured in an IED blast triggered by Maoists during the operation, they said.
This was the third major strike on Naxalites by security forces in the last one month and comes three weeks after 29 extremists were killed in an encounter in Kanker district. The latest gunfight took place in a forest near Pidia village under Gangaloor police station limits when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxal operation, a police official said. Personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukma districts, Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) were involved in the operation, he said. The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of commander of PLGA (People's Liberation Guerrilla Army) company number 2 of Maoists Vella, and Gagaloor area committee secretary Dinesh Modiyam along with 100 to 150 cadres in the forest, the official said. The encounter broke out between the two sides at around 6 am in the forest near Pidia, located over 450 km away from state capital Raipur, he said. After the guns fell silent, bodies of 12 Naxalites were recovered from the spot, he said, adding their identity was yet to be ascertained.
Besides, a barrel grenade launcher, a 12 bore gun, a country made rifle, BGL shells, a huge cache of explosives, Maoist uniforms, bags, medicines and Naxal publicity materials and literature were seized from the gunfight site, he said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.