Two Special Task Force (STF)personnel, including a platoon commander, were injured in a fierce gunbattle with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, a police official said today.The encounter took place last evening between the ultras and a joint team of security forces at a forest in Kistaram village, Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena told PTI.Separate joint squads of the STF and the District Reserve Guard (DRG) had yesterday launched an anti-Maoist operation in the forest areas of Kistaram and Chintagufa villages, located around 500 km from the state capital Raipur, following a tip-off about the presence of Naxals, he said.When the patrolling teams were cordoning-off the forest areas near Sakler, Salatong and Tondamarka villages, multiple encounters took place between the security forces and the ultras, Meena said.The longest gunbattle that lasted for about an hour took place in the evening in which platoon commander Milap Sori and constable Sodhi Hidma, belonging to the STF, sustained injuries, he said.When the security personnel started zeroing-in on Naxals, they escaped into the dense forest, the SP said.Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured STF personnel were brought to Kistaram from where they were airlifted to Raipur in the early hours for treatment, he said.Meena said as per the ground report, several Naxals were killed in the gunfight but their colleagues managed to drag them inside the core forest.During the search so far, a huge cache explosives and Naxal-related material were recovered from the spot.Further details were awaited as the search operation was underway in the region, he added.
