At least seven Maoists were killed in a gunfight in a forest near Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Thursday, during a joint operation by security forces and police from Narayanpur, Bastar, and Dantewada, officials reported. The operation also led to the seizure of seven weapons and other materials, with the encounter still ongoing as of late evening. The identities of the deceased Maoists have not yet been determined.
According to a statement from the Narayanpur police, the gunfight began around 11 a.m. in the forest along the borders of Bijapur and Narayanpur districts. Approximately 1,000 security personnel from Bastar, Narayanpur, and Dantewada were involved in the operation.
The operation was launched on Wednesday night following specific intelligence about leaders of Platoon number 16 of the CPI (Maoist) and members of the Indrawati Area Committee being present in the area. At around 11 a.m. on Thursday, a firefight erupted. After the initial exchange of fire, the bodies of two Maoists were recovered by Narayanpur police.
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The ongoing operation is taking place in the Abujhmaad forest, located at the tri-junction of Narayanpur, Bastar, and Dantewada districts. In the evening, Dantewada police, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rahul Uike and DSP Ashish Netam, recovered five more bodies and seized five weapons, although the specific types of the weapons are yet to be confirmed. Narayanpur police also seized two additional weapons.
Abujhmaad, which spans 6,000 square kilometers of thick forest and has not been surveyed since the British era, is a major center of Maoist activity. Several senior cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) are believed to be operating from this region.
This latest encounter brings the total number of Maoists killed by security forces and state police this year to 112, a significant increase compared to 2023, when 22 Maoists were killed.
