One naxal gunned down during exchange of fire by security forces

Raipur: A Naxal was on Thursday gunned down in an exchange of fire with security forces in the dense forest of Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Bastar district, police said. [caption id=“attachment_2949670” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The skirmish took place on Thursday morning while a joint team of District Reserve Group (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) was conducting an anti-Maoist operation in the core jungle of Mardoom police station area, Bastar Superintendent of Police, RN Dash told PTI. Acting on specific inputs, security personnel had launched the operation on Wednesday night towards Tunder forest area of Mardoom, located around 350 kms away from the state capital Raipur. While security forces were cordoning off a forest pocket on Thursday morning, they were attacked by a squad of ultras belonging to Barsoor Area Committee of Maoist led by Vilash and Singhanna, the SP said. The gun-battle lasted for about an hour before the ultras fled from the spot, he said. During the search, body of one male Maoist clad in ‘uniform’, two 315 bore rifles, one directional pipe bomb with its container and huge dump of other Naxal-related items were recovered from the spot, he added. Patrol party suspect that some more naxals might have also been injured in the gun battle as blood stains were found at the spot, the SP said, adding that security forces were chasing the attackers deep inside the forested area. Further details are awaited.