Sukma: At least 16 Naxalites were killed, and two security personnel sustained injuries in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Saturday, police said.
The gunfight broke out in the morning hours in a forest under the Kerlapal police station area where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, an official said.
He said personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are involved in the operation launched on Friday night based on inputs about the presence of Maoists in the Kerlapal area.
“Bodies of 16 Naxalites have been recovered from the encounter site so far. The operation is still underway,” the official said.
Two security personnel sustained minor injuries in the action, he added.
In a separate incident in Bijapur a woman was injured after an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Naxalites went off in the early hours of Saturday, police said.
The blast occurred around 6:30 am near Bodga village under Bhairamgarh police station limits when the woman ventured into a forest to collect mahua fruits, an official said.
The village is on the other side of the Indravati River, more than 400 km from the capital Raipur.
As per preliminary information, the woman was returning from the forest when she came in contact with an IED, triggering the blast, he said.
The official said the woman sustained serious injuries to her legs and was rushed to the Bhairamgarh community health centre, from where she was referred to Jagdalpur for further treatment.
In May last year, two minor boys were killed in a similar incident in Bodga village, he said.
The Maoists often plant IEDs along roads, dirt tracks and forests to target security personnel patrolling in interior pockets of the Bastar region, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur.
Civilians have fallen prey to such traps laid by ultras in the past in the Bastar region, police said.
