Two women Naxalites were killed in an exchange of fire with District Reserve Guards (DRG) in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada on September 20, officials said.
Officials said that Dantewada DRG teams were launched from Nahadi Chhattisgarh Armed Forces (CAF) on the basis of input regarding the presence of senior Darbha Divisional cadres near Nagaram-Poro Hirma jungles along the Dantewada-Sukma Interdistrict border. IG Bastar, P Sundarraj said that at around 7:00 am, there was an exchange of fire between Maoists and Dantewada DRG.
During the search of the area, the dead bodies of two female naxal cadres along with one INSAS Rifle and one 12-bore rifle were recovered from the spot, he said. Earlier, in September, two Naxalites were killed in an encounter with police personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.
According to officials, a Joint operation was conducted by the DRG Sukma and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) 223 Corps.
A 12-bore double barrel rifle and 1 pistol were recovered from the spot.
SP Sukma Kiran Chavan said, “Based on the intelligence report of the presence of 10 to 12 Naxalites of Jagargunda Area Committee in the forests of Tadmetla and Duled under Chintagufa police station, District Sukma, a joint force of DRG and CRPF 223 was dispatched to the said places as part of the anti-Naxal operation.”
During the operation, on September 5 at around 6 am, the police party was ambushed by the Naxalites between Tadmetla-Duled forests. The police team immediately took position and retaliated with self-defence firing, SP Kiran Chavan further said.
A search operation was carried out after the firing. Bodies of two Naxalites were recovered, in which primary identification was done as militia cadres Sodhi Deva and Rava Deva who were active in the Jagargunda Area Committee and carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on their head.
Both of them were charged with the murder of educator Kawasi Sukka and present Deputy Sarpanch Tadmetla Panchayat, Madvi Ganga on June 28 under Chintagufa police station and the murder of Korsa Kosa near Minpa on August 31 on the suspicion of being a police informer.
(with inputs from ANI)
