NEW DELHI, Apr 3: Five security personnel were killed and at least 15 others injured in an exchange of fire with Maoists at a forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday.
The police believed that some Maoists were also killed in the encounter but the details were not immediately known. According to Director General of Police DM Awasthi, the encounter broke out in Tarrem area when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxal operation. Personnel belonging to the CRPF’s elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force (STF) were involved in the operation.
“The encounter broke out in Tarrem area (along Sukma and Bijapur border) when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxal (Maoist) operation,” Awasthi said. “As per the preliminary information, five jawans were killed and a few others were injured in the gunfight,” he added.
Two MI 17 helicopters and nine ambulances have been rushed to the spot for evacuation.
The latest incident comes nearly two weeks after five personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) were killed and several injured in an IED blast — the first major Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh this year — in Narayanpur.
On Thursday, meanwhile, three Maoists involved in planting explosives to target the security forces were arrested from Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.
(Manas Dasgupta)
