A woman naxal commander was today gunned down in a fierce gun-battle between security forces and ultras in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district bordering Maharashtra.
"The skirmish took place in the deep jungles of Sendra on Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border between a joint team of forces from both the states and ultras," Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range SRP Kalluri said.
In the view of a campaign of naxals which usually starts from January during which they step up their activities,a special operation was launched by Bijapur and Gadchiroli (MH) police on the bordering areas notorious for Maoist activities, the IG said.
A team of District Reserve Group(DRG) numbering around 80 led by Bijapur Additional Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela was matched on Maharashtra side by his Gadchiroli counterpart Manjunath Singh with a strength of 75 C-60 commandos (special operations group of Maharashtra Police) for the operation, he said.
"The strategy was to enter Bijapur National Park area -- a Maoist bastion, from Maharashtra side. Our forces first went to Maharashtra side surreptitiously and then penetrated Bijapur jointly with Maharashtra forces which Maoists could not anticipate," he said.
While security forces were cordoning off a forest pocket in Sendra, a fierce encounter broke out with naxals.
However, on finding security personnel zeroing on them, ultras fled from thespot following which body of a woman ultra was recovered from the spot, he said.
The deceased rebel was identified as LOS (local operation squad) Commander National park area committee of Maoists, Mangi who was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on her head, he said.
An Insas rifle and it five magazines were also recovered from the place, he said.
With thisencounter, the number of Maoists gunned down by police inseparateincidents in Bastar this month has gone upto six.
(REOPENS BOM9)
The killed CRPF personnel have been identified as
Inspector Jagjit Singh, Assistant Sub-inspectors H B Bhatt and Narender Kumar Singh, Head Constable P R Minde and Constables Mangesh Pal Pandey, Rampal Singh Yadav, Goraknath, Nand Kumar Patra, Satish Kumar Verma, K Shankar and Suresh Kumar.
Head Constable Jagdish Prasad Vishnoi and Constables Jaidev Parmanik and Salim are critically injured.
