Twelve more Naxalites were killed in a new gunfight that broke out late Monday night and early Tuesday morning in a forest near the Mainpur police station area along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border in Gariaband district according to an official.
The operation featured a combined squad of security officers from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Chhattisgarh’s CoBRA, Odisha’s Special Operation Group (SOG), and the District Reserve Guard (DRG).
According to the police, a naxalite who had a bounty of one crore was also killed during the encounter.
The official stated that the operation was started on the evening of January 19 in response to information indicating that Maoists were present in Chhattisgarh’s Kularighat reserve forest, which is only 5 kilometers from the Nuapada district border in Odisha.
A sizable stockpile of weapons, ammunition, and IEDs, including a self-loading rifle, were found at the scene of the encounter on Monday, and two female Naxalites were neutralized during the operation. The number of Maoist casualties may increase, he said.
