Six Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Tuesday, police said.
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai lauded the operation, describing it as another step towards the eradication of the Maoist menace.
The gunfight broke out at around 10 am in the Indravati National Park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation based on inputs about the presence of senior Maoist cadres in the region, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Yadav said.
Personnel belonging to the police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Bijapur and Dantewada districts and Special Task Force (STF) were involved in the operation, he said. Intermittent exchange of fire continued for several hours, the SP said, adding that during the search of the encounter site, the bodies of six Maoists with automatic weapons, including an INSAS rifle, sten guns, a .303 rifle and explosives, were found, the official said. Additional teams of DRG, STF, Bastar Fighters, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) were rushed to cordon off the area and nab fleeing Maoist cadres, he added. The operation was still underway, said SP Yadav.
In a post on X, CM Sai said, “The campaign against the Maoist insurgency continues, and Naxalism is coming to an end. Today, during an ongoing encounter between a joint team of DRG and STF of Chhattisgarh police, and Naxalites in Bijapur, six Naxalites have been neutralised so far. “This is a major success for the security forces in the direction of completely eradicating the Maoist menace, and I salute their courage. It is the resolve of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji to end Naxalism from the country and the state by March 31, 2026. We are achieving success in fulfilling this resolve,” he added.
Meanwhile, in a separate operation, an injured Naxalite was apprehended following an encounter between security forces and Maoists in the forest of Annaram village in the Tarlaguda area of Bijapur, police said. The injured Maoist was subsequently hospitalised, they said.
With the latest action, 259 Naxalites have been killed in encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 230 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur, while 27 others were gunned down in Gariaband district which falls in the Raipur division.
Two Naxalites were killed in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district in Durg division. On September 22, two senior Naxalites, Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67), both Central Committee members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), were killed in an encounter in the state’s Narayanpur district.
