2 jawans, eight Naxals killed in Chhattisgarh

Bhopal: At least eight suspected Maoists and two jawans were on Monday killed in an encounter between them in the Sakler jungle under Kistaram police station in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Sukma.

According to director general of police (Naxal operation), Chhattisgarh, D.M. Awasthi, a joint search party comprising personal of district reserve group (DRG), special task force (STF) and CRPF raided a Maoist camp in Sakler jungle following intelligence inputs on presence of a large number of Naxals including some senior leaders.

Later, a fierce encoun-ter ensued between the-m that lasted nearly one and half hours. Bodies of eight Maoists were recovered at the spot after the encounter ended. However, two DRG jawans were slained in the incident.

Huge cache of arms and ammunitions besid-es explosives were also recovered at the encou-nter site. However, details on the seizures would be known after the combat party reached their camp, Mr Awasthi said.

Of the nine deceased Maoists, two were Divisional Commanders or DVCs of outlawed CPI (Maoist) carrying a bounty of 'eight lakh each on their heads.

One of them was identified as Tati Bheema, the in-charge of Maoists’ arm trainers. The other was identified as Podium Raje.

“We are in the process of identifying other deceased Naxals”, he said.

The encounter took place in the area when Maoists have deployed their military number one.