Bhubaneshwar: Twelve more Maoists were killed in a gunfight between security personnel and left-wing extremists along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border on Tuesday, police said.
As two women red rebels were gunned down on Monday, the total number of Maoists killed in the ongoing inter-state operation mounted to 14, a senior officer said.
The operations were being conducted by the police forces of Odisha and Chhattisgarh and CRPF, he said.
He said a joint team of security personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), CoBRA from Chhattisgarh, and Special Operation Group (SOG) from Odisha were involved in the operation.
The official said the operation was launched on the night of January 19 based on intelligence about the presence of Maoists in the Kularighat reserve forest of Chhattisgarh, just 5 km from the border of Odisha’s Nuapada district.
Two women Naxalites were neutralized during the operation on Monday, and a large cache of firearms, ammunition and IEDs, including a self-loading rifle, were recovered from the encounter site, the official said.
The number of Maoist casualties may increase, he said.
