New Delhi:

A high Maoist chief – Shankar Rao – was amongst 18 insurgent fighters killed by safety forces throughout an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district Tuesday, senior police officer Kalyan Elesela has instructed NDTV.

An enormous amount of weapons, together with seven Ak-47 assault rifles and three LMGs, or mild machine weapons, have been recovered. The Maoist chief shot lifeless – Rao – had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head.

Three safety personnel have been injured within the gunfight – one in his leg – which happened in forests close to the village of Binagunda within the Chotebetiya Police Station limits, between the Maoists and a joint group of the District Reserve Guard and the Border Safety Power. All three injured personnel are secure.

Sources mentioned the preventing started at round 2 PM, when a joint DRG-BSF group was conducting an anti-Maoist operation. The DRG was arrange in in 2008 to fight Maoist actions within the state, and the Border Safety Power has been deployed extensively within the space to for counter-insurgency ops.

There was one other encounter within the district final month, wherein two folks – a Maoist and a cop – have been killed, and safety forces recovered a gun, some explosives, and different incriminating supplies.

Personnel from the DRG and Bastar Fighters, each items of the state police pressure, with the Border Safety Power, have been concerned in that operation, officers instructed information company PTI. The patrolling group was cordoning off a forested space when fired on indiscriminately, resulting in the gun battle.

In February, three Maoists have been killed in one other encounter in Kanker.

In November final yr, whereas the state was voting within the first part of an Meeting election, a gunfight broke out between safety forces and Maoist rebels in the identical district.

READ | Gunfight Between Safety Forces, Maoists Amid 1st Section Of Chhattisgarh Polls

An Ak-47 rifle was recovered from the encounter website.

On the identical day, whereas polling was going down, Maoists fired at DRG personnel deployed close to a polling station in Banda in Dantewada district.

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