Chhattisgarh: CRPF says it carried out major operation, killed Maoists
However, security personnel did not manage to recover the bodies or weapons of the rebels.
The Central Reserve Police Force on Tuesday said they had carried out a major operation in Chattisgarh and killed many Maoists, reported Hindustan Times. While a spokesperson of the central forces said around 14 rebels were killed in the encounters, they have not managed to recover the bodies or the weapons of the Maoists.
The spokesperson attributed the Maoist toll to information provided by villagers on the borders of Sukma and Bijapur districts and the teams involved in the operation. The officials said a security personnel was also injured during the operation.
“As per teams [which took part in the operations] more than a dozen Maoists were killed in [three] encounters and it could be more as we don’t know the exact number,” said DM Awasthi, the state police’s special director general in charge of anti-Maoist operations told Hindustan Times.
The operation was conducted in Basakura by a team including the paramilitary’s personnel as well as members of the CRPF’S Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, Special Task Force, Chhattisgarh Police and District Reserve Group, reported The Times of India. It was carried out between May 12 and May 16.
This follows the April 24 attack on CRPF personnel, which is being described as the worst Maoist attack on security forces. “Our forces, who went deep into the forests to carry out the operations, saw Maoists falling down after being hit by bullets,” an unidentified official told The Times of India. “However, neither bodies nor weapons could be recovered during these operations.”
On April 24, as many as 25 CRPF soldiers were killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district. The troops were guarding workers constructing a road in the Burkapal-Chintagufa area of the Bastar region, which is a Maoist hotbed, when the attack took place. The incident was the worst Maoist attack on security forces in Chhattisgarh since April 6, 2010, when 76 CRPF soldiers were killed in an encounter in Dantewada district.