C'garh: Naxal leader killed, 4 ultras held, vehicles torched

A dreaded Naxal commander was killed in a gunfight with police and four ultras were arrested in separate incidents in Chhattisgarh, where the insurgents also set on fire at least 20 vehiclesand machines engaged in mining work and torched a passenger bus since yesterday.
The commander, identified only as Podia, was today gunned down by police in Dantewada district, 450km from here, Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
The encounter took place at around 1 PM between a squad of District Reserve Group (DRG) and rebels at Kesapur village under Tongpal police station limits, he said.
Other rebels managed to escape from the spot, from where a 303 rifle, its nine 'live' rounds, a 315 bore revolver along with its six 'live' cartridges were recovered, he said.

The dreaded Naxal, Podia had been instrumental in executing several deadly attacks in the region, Kashyap said.
With this gun battle, the number of Naxals gunned down in half a dozen encounters in south Bastar this month has reached 15, the police officer said.

Four Naxals, including a woman, were apprehended in Kanker district, about 130km from the state capital.
The ultras, Ramesh Vetti (22), Faguram Mandavi (21), Panchlal Usendi alias Baiga and Sumitra Darro alias Guddi (20), were nabbed by a joint team of Border Security Force (BSF) and district police force yesterday, said Jitendra Singh Meena, Kanker Superintendent of Police.

The arrested rebels admitted their involvement in torching vehicles in Chargaon mines on October 30, he said.
In the same district, Naxals today set on fire at least 20 vehiclesand machines engaged in mining work. These included 13 trucks and 6 Poclain machines (excavators). No one was hurt in the incident, police said.
A group of armed ultras raided theHahaladdi iron ore mining site under the limits of Durgukondal Police Station this evening. After asking the labourers and drivers to leave the place, they torched at least 20 vehiclesand machines engaged in mining work, Meena said.
In Sukma district, insurgents allegedly torcheda privatebus after asking its passengers to alight.

The bus, heading to Hyderabad from Jagdalpur (Bastar's district headquarter), was stopped by around 50 rebels, most of them armed, in a thickly forested patch near Tahakwada last night. They asked the passengers to get down and then allegedly set it ablaze, a senior police official said.
According to the SP, the same group had allegeldy
targeted police personnel at the weekly market of Burgum on October 1, 2015 wherea constable Manarau Benjam was killed.
Similarly, a rebel was killed in a separate encounter in near Rengawaya village under Bedre police station area of Bijapur.
When ajoint team of the Kutru police station and DRG lead by SHO Yugal Kishore Naag was out on a search operation in Bedre region, a group of armed Maoists, hiding in the forests, opened indiscriminate fire on them, Bijapur SP K L Dhruv said.

Subsequently, security forces retaliated prompting rebels to flee from the spot, he added.
The body of a male maoist along with a 12 bore gun, two muzzle loading guns, one hand grenade, 25-30 live rounds ofammunitionof 12 Bore gun, and a huge cache of explosives and daily uses items was recovered from the spot, the SP said.