Bijapur:�Three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Sunday, police said.
The gunfight broke out in the morning at a forest in the Indravati National Park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj P said. Personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and District Force were involved in the operation, he said.
After the intermittent exchange of fire stopped, bodies of three Naxalites clad in 'uniform' along with firearms, including the automatic ones, and explosives were recovered from the site, the official said. Search operation was still underway in the area, he added.
With this, 12 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in the state so far this year. During a three-day long anti-Naxal operation by security forces in Abujhmad on the border of Narayanpur-Dantewada-Bijapur districts that concluded on January 6, five Naxalites, including two women, were killed.
On January 9, three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sukma district. Earlier, on January 3, a Naxalite was killed in an encounter with security personnel in Gariaband district, which falls in Raipur division. Last year, 219 Naxalites were neutralised by security forces in separate encounters in the state.On January 6 this year, Naxalites blew up a vehicle with an IED in Bijapur district, killing eight police personnel and their civilian driver.�