Massive 20-day anti-Maoist operation ends with 26 killed, cache of weapons seized
Raipur: The biggest-ever counterinsurgency operation involving around 24,000 security personnel launched in the Karregutta hills on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border on April 21 has ended, police sources said on Monday.
The 20-day-long operation carried out in the forested tough terrain led to the death of at least 26 Maoists, recovery of over 40 weapons and huge quantities of explosives and detection of scores of cave hideouts of the Maoists.
The operation was primarily aimed at sanitising around 800 sq km area, used as a safe haven by top Maoist leaders for decades, police said. Details on the anti-Naxal operation may be revealed to the media by the security establishment on Tuesday, sources said.
The operation was launched from the side of Bijapur district in south Bastar in Chhattisgarh following inputs that several top Maoist leaders were holed up in the terrain.
Police on Monday said bodies of 20 out of 22 Maoists slain during the Karregutta operation on May 7 have been identified so far. Four Naxals, killed on April 24 in the anti-Maoist operation, have already been identified.
Of the 20 bodies identified so far, 11 have been handed over to the respective kin of the deceased, police said.
In another development, a local Congress leader identified as Naga Bhandra was hacked to death by Maoists when he was attending a social function in a village in Bijapur district late on Sunday night, police said.
The slain Congress leader who was secretary of Marudabka society in Usur area in the district.
Maoists attacked him with sharp weapons when he was attending a social function in the village of Lingapur, police said. His brother was killed by the Maoists six months ago.
