Raipur: In a major counterinsurgency operation, ten suspected Maoists including a woman cadre were on Tuesday gunned down in an encounter with security forces in the jungle of Bijapur district under Bastar in Chhattisgarh.Acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of large number of Maoists in Lendra-Korcholi jungles under Gangaloor police station limits in Bijapur district, a joint security team comprising personnel of district reserve guard (DRG), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), special task force (STF) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) launched search operation in the area late on Monday night.The joint search party came under attack by Maoists in the jungle near Lendra village at around six am on Tuesday, leading to a fierce encounter between them, a senior police officer posted in Bastar said.The encounter lasted for around nine hours in which Maoists suffered heavy casualties, police said.“Bodies of ten Maoists have so far been recovered at the encounter site. Huge cache of arms and ammunition including an automatic weapon were also recovered at the site”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper.The casualty among the Maoists may rise since many ultras were reported to have been injured in the incident, police sources said.“Majority of the slain ultras were the members of the company number two of the People’s Liberation Army Guerrilla (PLGA)”, a senior police officer posted in Bijapur district said.One Light Machine Gun (LMG) automatic weapon, one .303 bore rifle, one 12 bore rifle and huge quantities of barrel grenade launcher (BGL) shells with BGLs and other arms and ammunition were recovered at the encounter site.The ten slain Maoists were yet to be identified.Search operation in the area was on till the last reports came.With this, total 41 Maoists were killed in separate encounters in Bastar division comprising districts of Bastar, Kanker, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Kondagaon, Bijapur and Sukma, in the last four months.Meanwhile two hardcore Naxals carrying bounties of Rs 29 lakh and Rs 14 lakh respectively were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in the jungle of Kerjhari in Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning, MP police said.The two slain Maoists were identified as divisional committee member (DVCM) Sajanti alias Kranti, who carried a bounty of Rs 29 lakh and Raghu alias Sher Singh who carried a reward of Rs 14 lakh on his head.One AK47 assault rifle and one twelve bore rifle were among the arms and ammunition that were recovered at the encounter site.
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