Security forces recovered 15 more bodies of the Maoists from Indravati river in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on Tuesday, taking the total number of the Maoists killed in the district to 37 in the last three days. The bodies were recovered from the river near the spot of the April 22 encounter in Kasansur area of Gadchiroli in which the security forces had gunned down 16 rebels.
“We have recovered 15 more bodies this morning. All these bodies have been recovered from the same area where Sunday’s (April 22) encounter had taken place. We can say that overall 31 people were killed in Sunday’s encounter,” Sharad Shelar, the Inspector General of Maharashtra police’s Anti-Naxal Operations unit, told The Hindu .
“Due to heavy rains on April 22 after the encounter, the search operation had to be stopped midway. The search operations were resumed on Monday and continued today in which we recovered 15 more bodies of the Maoists from Indravati. Of the 15 bodies recovered today, eight were that of female Maoists.
“One INSAS rifle was also recovered during the search operation today and there is a possibility that some senior Maoist leaders could be among the dead Maoists. The search operation has been intensified in the area,” Gadchiroli police said in a statement. In a separate incident , security forces had killed six Maoists in Jimalgatta area of Gadchiroli late on April 23. “Of the six Maoists killed in Jimalgatta, four were women. The Divisional Committee member of the CPI (Maoist) in the area Nandu alias Vasudev Atram was also killed in this encounter. One SLR, one INSAS, and three other weapons were recovered from the spot of this encounter,” Gadchiroli police said in another statement on Tuesday. The killing of 37 Maoists within a span of 72 hours has effectively wiped out the Maoist organization in south Gadchiroli. “Of the total 37 dead Maoists, 19 were women. We have identified 16 bodies so far and the identity of 21 bodies is yet to be ascertained. These 16 Maoists carried a combined reward of ₹ 1.6 crore. These back to back encounters have eliminated four out of five Divisional Committee Members of the CPI (Maoist) in Gadchiroli. This will definitely give a boost to developmental activities in this area and will also put an end to Maoists' atrocities on common villagers. We appeal to all the Maoists to give up the path of violence and surrender,” the police statement added. The killing of 31 Maoists in a single operation is the biggest success of the security forces in the country's four-decade-long history of the Left Wing Extremism.
