In a significant success for the security forces, a hardcore Maoist carrying a reward has been neutralised following an exchange of fire in the Maoist-affected Bastar division of Chhattisgarh on Thursday, February 8.
The encounter between the security personnel and the extremists occurred when a joint team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were out on a counter-insurgency operation in the forest region of Gondpalli in Dantewada.
According to the reports, the operation was launched upon receiving credible information about the presence of a group of Maoists in the area following which a joint team was dispatched to the location. Upon arriving at the spot, the forces faced indiscriminate firing by the extremists, to which the forces also retaliated heavily.
After the gunfight stopped, the joint team conducted a thorough search around the vicinity, leading to the recovery of a body of a male Maoist cadre with arms. The deceased Maoist was later identified as Chandranna, a Divisional Committee Member (DCM) of the Jagargunda Area Committee of the outlawed CPI Maoist.
The deceased was reportedly active in the banned outfit for a long time and was also named in a number of cases against which a reward of Rs 8 lakh had already been announced by the State government. The security forces have also recovered a country-made pistol along with other materials from the possession of the deceased.
The development occurred a day after as many as two security personnel got martyred in an attack carried out by the Maoists on security forces in the Maoist-affected Bairiyo of Chatra district of Jharkhand on Wednesday, February 7.
The Maoists launched the attack when forces were out on an operation near Gamhatri village in Chatra, leading to an intense exchange of fire in which as many as two Jawans lost their lives while three of them sustained injuries. One of the injured Jawans was also airlifted to Ranchi, where he is being treated.
Forces intensifies counter-insurgency operations
It is worth mentioning here that, of late, the security forces have been conducting back to back search operations in the Maoist-affected regions of Chhattisgarh and adjoining States infested by insurgency.
The operations launched on specific inputs in Maoist-affected regions have led to the arrest of two hardcore Maoists along with the killing of another 4, including those carrying rewards, in a week’s time alone.
Earlier, in an operation launched in the remote regions of Narayanpur district, a joint team of security forces neutralised as many as two cadres of the banned Maoist outfit after an exchange of fire on Saturday, February 3.
The development occurred a day before the forces in another operation launched on reliable inputs nabbed as many as two hardcore Maoists carrying a bounty of Rs 5 lakhs each on their heads in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.
The duo was arrested from Munjalgodi village under Kanker police station limits by a District Reserve Guard (DRG) team that was out on a counter-insurgency operation in the area. The arrested Maoists were identified as Vinod Awlam alias Ganga, team commander of the Nuapada protection unit of the North Bastar Division of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), and Aasu Korsa, deputy commander of the same unit, both residents of Gangloor police station of Bijapur.
It is to be noted that earlier, in another such operation launched in the Kandhamal district of neighbouring Odisha on Saturday, a DCM of the outlawed Maoist outfit was also killed following a heavy exchange of fire between the forces and the Maoists in the Baliguda police station limits.
The deceased Maoist has been later identified as Dasru, a DCM of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), armed wing of the banned Maoist outfit, CPI (Maoist).
The said Maoist was involved in several cases of arson, loot and murder, for which as many as 20 cases were pending against him in the Kandhamal district alone, while a case against him was also pending under the jurisdiction of one of the police stations of Boudh district, informed police in a press release.
