A Maoist was killed and two others were injured in an encounter with security personnel in the Niyamgiri forest near Dangamati village under the Kalyansinghpur police station in Rayagada district on Saturday.
Acting on a tipoff, the security personnel launched a combing operation in the forest on Kalahandi-Rayagada border. During the operation, the security forces encountered Maoists, following which a fierce gun battle ensued at around 4.30 am.
A Red rebel was killed and two others sustained bullet injuries. The identity of the deceased was yet to be ascertained, but the security personnel recovered the body.
Two 9 mm pistols, a gun, a huge cache of arms and ammunitions and Maoist literature were among the materials seized from the spot.
The operation was led by Rayagada SP K Siba Subramani. Following the encounter, combing operation was intensified in the area.
It may be mentioned that the ultras had triggered a landmine explosion in the area last month. However, no casualties were reported.
In another incident, Maoists continued to unleash terror in Malkangiri district as a villager was found dead with his throat slit in the wee hourson Saturday.
Eight to ten Maoists called Biswanath Khilo, a resident of Panasput village in the cutoff area of the Chirtrakonda reservoir, from his house on Friday night. On Saturday morning, locals found Khilo’s body in a pool of blood with his throat slit on the outskirts of the village.
The Maoists killed Khilo suspecting him to be a police informer, sources said. Red rebels had killed Khilo’s father, a Gram Rakshi, in 2012 suspecting him to be a police informer.