Senior Maoist Among 4 Naxals Gunned Down In Bastar, Automatic Weapons Recovered
The slain senior Maoist leader has been identified as Dilip Bedje, divisional commander of the Indravati Park Area Committee, the fearsome unit of Maoists operating in the Indravati National Park area in Bijapur district: Reports
RAIPUR: Four Naxals including a senior cadre were on Saturday gunned down in the ongoing encounter with security forces in Bijapur district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
The slain senior Maoist leader has been identified as Dilip Bedje, divisional commander of the Indravati Park Area Committee, the fearsome unit of Maoists operating in the Indravati National Park area in Bijapur district.
The Indravati Park Area Committee of Maoists basically facilitates smooth interstate movements of top Naxals from Gadchiroli in Maharashtra to Telangana through Bijapur in Chhattisgarh.
According to Bijapur district superintendent of police Dr Jitendra Kuamr Yadav, acting on specific intelligence inputs on the presence of Dilip Bedje along with armed Maoist guerrillas in a densely forested region of Indravati National Park, a search operation was launched by the security forces in the area.
An encounter took place between them that still continued till the last reports came late in the evening, police said.
Bodies of four Maoists along with several automatic weapons such as AK 47 rifles and 303 rifles were recovered at the encounter site so far, the police officer said.
The slain Maoists included a woman cadre, he added.
However, identification of the other three bodies was yet to be done.
As many as 285 Maoists were killed in Bastar, comprising seven districts of Bastar, Kanker, ondagaon, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Sukma and Bijapur, in separate encounters in the last two years.