Bijapur Encounter: Maoists’ Strongest Armed Squad Hit Hard as Forces Kill 12 Naxals

�Raipur: Twelve Naxals including five women slain in Thursday’s encounter in Bijapur district in south Bastar of Chhattisgarh were the members of the battalion one of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) and Central Regional Committee (CRC)’s military company two, considered the strongest armed squad of Maoists, police said.

Bodies of the 12 Maoists, killed in the encounter with security forces in Pujari Kanker area on January 16, were recovered on Friday.

“The 12 slain Maoists are being identified. The deceased Naxals belonged to PLGA’s battalion one and CRC company two”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper.

Highlighting the significance of Thursday’s counterinsurgency operation carried out in Pujari Kanker area, considered the core area of Maoists, Mr Sunderraj said, “A decisive battle was fought by security forces against the PLGA’s battalion one and the CRC’s military company two”.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of some top-level Maoist leaders along with a large number of armed Naxals, a joint security team launched a search operation in the area and later surrounded the Maoist camp, leading to a fierce gunbattle between them.

However, Hidma, a Central Committee (CC) member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), and Barsa Deva, commander of battalion one of Maoists, along with other Naxals managed to escape, police said.

Security forces recovered one rocket launcher, developed by the technical committee of PLGA, three barrel grenade launchers (BGLs) and some rifles and guns.

Besides, lathe machines and a huge pile of steel pipes, used for making weapons, were also recovered at the encounter site.

In the first fortnight of the current month, 25 Maoists were killed in separate encounters in Bastar, Mr Sunderraj said.