New Delhi:
Twenty-nine Maoists, including senior rebel leader Shankar Rao, who had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head, were killed by security forces in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Tuesday afternoon. A huge quantity of weapons, including Ak-47 and INSAS rifles, were recovered.
Three security personnel were injured in the gunfight, which took place in the forests near Binagunda village after a joint team of District Reserve Guard and Border Security Force was attacked.
Two of the three injured are from the BSF. Their condition is stable, but the third – from the DRG – is in intensive care. All three were treated at a local hospital and will be transferred to a larger facility.
Sources said the clashes started around 2 pm when a joint DRG-BSF team carried out an anti-Maoist operation. The DRG was formed in 2008 to combat Maoist activities in the state, and the Border Security Force has been deployed extensively in the area for counter-insurgency.
Last month, another encounter took place in the district, during which two people – a Maoist and a policeman – were killed, and security forces seized a firearm, some explosives and other incriminating materials.
Personnel of the DRG and Bastar Fighters, both state police units, with the Border Security Force, were involved in that operation, officials told news agency PTI. The patrolling team was cordoning off a wooded area when it was fired upon indiscriminately, leading to a gun battle.
In February, three Maoists were killed in another encounter in Kanker.
In November last year, while the state was voting in the first phase of assembly elections, a gunfight broke out between security forces and Maoist rebels in the same district.
READ | Gunfight between security forces and Maoists during the first phase of Chhattisgarh polls
An Ak-47 rifle was recovered from the encounter site.
On the same day, while elections were taking place, Maoists fired on DRG personnel deployed near a polling station at Banda in Dantewada district.
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