A Naxal was shot down in an encounter with security forces in a densely forested patch of insurgency-hit Sukma district, police said here on Sunday.
“A joint team of District Reserve Group (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) had an encounter with Naxals in the forest near Misiguda and Bendre villages coming under Jagargunda police station limits,” Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Santosh Singh said.
The team consisting of personnel from 74th and 223rd battalions of CRPF, CoBRA’s (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and District police, were carrying out anti-naxal operations in Sukma district based on specific intelligence inputs, the ASP said.
According to the police, a team of security force while patrolling through Misiguda-Bendrre forests, spotted a group of Maoists following which an encounter broke out between both the sides. The intermittent firing lasted for several hours following which the insurgents fled from the spot, he said.
later during searching, body of a Naxal clad in ‘uniform’ besides two country made weapons, ammunition, bags, medicines and Naxal literature was recovered from the spot, Singh said.
Blood stains found at the spot suggest that several rebels were either injured or killed in the gun-battle but their colleagues managed to drag them inside deep forests, he said.