Bijapur: Three Naxalites, one of them carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday morning, the police said.
It was the first encounter in the state after Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week appealed to the Naxalites to lay down arms and join the mainstream.
A gunfight broke out on a forested hill in the Indravati National Park area around 9 am on Saturday when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Inspector General of Police (IG), Bastar Range Sundarraj P said.
Personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Bijapur and Dantewada districts, Special Task Force (STF), the 202nd and 210th battalions of CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action — an elite unit of the CRPF) were involved in the operation, he said.
The DRG is a unit of the state police.
The official said the bodies of three Naxalites and a cache of weapons and explosives were recovered from the spot.
The operation was underway in the area, he added.
With the latest action, 138 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate encounters in the state so far this year. Of them, 122 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur.
