In a major crackdown on Maoists since 2013, the commandos from the State Anti-Naxal Squad (ANS) of the Maharashtra Police on Wednesday morning gunned down seven Maoists, including five women, in an encounter near Jhinganur village in Sironcha tehsil of Gadchiroli district in east Maharashtra.
Confirming the development, Special Inspector General of Police (Anti-Naxal Operations) Sharad Shelar said that the bodies of all the seven Naxals killed in the encounter had been recovered. The women cadres killed in the encounter belonged to the Sironcha dalam.
The encounter place at around 6 am in a forest adjoining Kalled village, 15 km away from near Jhinganur village in Sironcha tehsil of Gadchiroli district, when the C-60 commandos were carrying out combing operation on the basis of intelligence inputs.
Tuesday’s encounter came in the backdrop of skirmishes witnessed between the police and Maoists in various parts of Gadchiroli district during the past 15 days. During the skirmishes, the Maoists had killed seven persons – comprising five civilians and two police men – and injured at least five others.
After the encounter, the police recovered arms and naxalite propaganda material from the Maoists killed in the encounter.
In terms of the number of Maoists killed in the incident, Wednesday’s encounter is similar to the one witnessed on April 4, 2013, when the ANS commandos had killed seven Maoists and injured several others in an encounter in a jungle near Bhatpar village in Gadchiroli district of eastern Maharashtra, bordering Chhatisgarh.
Sources said that the C-60 commandos had intensified their anti-naxalite drive based intelligence inputs that scores of Maoists the naxalite-infested areas of Chhatisgarh had descended in Gadchiroli district ahead of the formation week of the People’s liberation Guerrilla Army.