Chhattisgarh: Eight Naxal bodies brought to Dantewada after 72-hour long operation in Bastar

RAIPUR: Security forces on Friday recovered one more Naxal body from the encounter site of Narayanpur district in Bastar division where seven Maoists were killed on Thursday in a joint inter-district operation launched by Bastar police in Chhattisgarh. Over a thousand security personnel were involved in a day-long encounter and they walked several kilometres carrying eight Naxal bodies to return to base in Dantewada on Friday.

Police said that it was a 71-hour long operation since the jawans started from their respective camps on May 21 from three districts of Bastar, Dantewada and Narayanpur and returned on May 24.

When the jawans were returning from operation, a group of Maoists opened fire upon the vehicle of Special Task Force, to which they retaliated and killed one woman Naxal, taking the death toll to eight.

Total eight Naxal bodies including four women were brought from the encounter sites.

A major joint operation ‘Jal Shakti’ was launched on Thursday based on inputs about presence of cadres from Platoon number 16, Indravati Area committee and Marh division in Handawada-Rekhawaya dense forest region. The Maoists were running a temporary training centre at the location to teach cadres using explosives and firing with guns.

The Dantewada District Reserve Guards personnel killed six Maoists, Narayanpur, Bastar DRG forces killed two cadres along with Bastar fighters and Special Task Force.

Dantewada SP Gaurav Rai and Narayanpur SP Prabhat Kumar said that eight uniformed bodies of Naxals were recovered from the encounter site along with weapons including one 303, 315 rifles, two 12 bore, four single barrel muzzle loading guns, seven BGL cells, cooker IEDs, wireless sets and arrow bombs. Security forces also recovered huge quantity of explosives, medicines, Maoist uniforms, literature, shoes and daily use materials from the spot.

From the pictures of encounter site, it appears that the Maoists were camping at a makeshift shed for training purposes.

“There were specific inputs about presence of 50-60 armed Maoists from Marh division’s Indravati area committee divisional committee member Deepak, Kamlakar, Sapna, platoon number 16 commander Mallesh. Dantewada DSPs Rahul Uikey, Ashish Netam and Narayanpur DSPs Prashant Dewangan led the team of nearly a thousand personnel from three districts,” said the SPs.

Walking several kilometres with the Maoist bodies and materials seized, jawans reached Dantewada around 4 pm on Friday.

Police said that the morale of security personnel was high and in sweltering heat, they faced gun-battle with Maoists at least 7-8 times since 11 on Thursday morning till late evening. Maoists had laid an ambush and they opened fire upon security personnel, following which, an encounter broke out from both sides.

Officials said that security personnel reported, there were many Naxals injured who were dragged by their colleagues into the forest.

Identity of the killed Naxals is not known yet.

Meanwhile, few suspects were apprehended on way back for questioning, police said that a 15 kg IED was planted, which was defused on the spot and there were few cadres in uniform who tried to escape but were caught.

Total number of Maoists killed this year reaches 113.

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