Raipur: At least three female Maoists were on Thursday gunned down in an encounter with the security forces in a forest in Narayanpur district, falling under Abujhmad, in south Bastar in Chhattisgarh, police said.
The encounter between the security forces and Maoists in the area was still on till the last reports came, Narayanpur district superintendent of police Prabhat Kumar said.
According to Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj, acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of around 30-40 hardcore Maoists in the forest along the borders of Narayanpur and Kanker districts in Bastar, a joint security party comprising personnel of district reserve group (DRG), special task force (STF) and the 135th battalion of Border Security Force (BSF) launched a search operation in the area.
Maoists opened fire on the security forces when the latter were cordoning off their hideout near Hatchekoti hill on Thursday morning, leading to a fierce encounter between them, police said.
Bodies of three women Naxals in Maoist uniform along with a huge cache of weapons and explosives were later recovered at the encounter site.
Reports from ground zero suggested that more casualties among the Maoist cadres were not ruled out, deputy inspector general of police in Bastar K L Dhruv said.
However, all the security personnel involved in the operation were safe, police said.
Details of the encounter were still awaited, police said.
The three slain Naxals have been identified as members of the company no five of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
According to Mr Sunderraj, as many 26 Maoists were killed and 212 others arrested in separate encounters in Bastar division, comprising seven districts, in the current monsoon season so far.
As many as 201 Maoists have surrendered during the period.
