4 Maoists, one police official killed in Chhattisgarh encounter

Joint operation by Indo Tibetan Border Police and State police

CRPF personnel patroling in Sukma area, in Chhattisgarh. File photo

In a joint operation, the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Chhattisgarh police killed four Maoists in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district on Saturday.

Shyam Kishore Sharma, a sub-inspector, was also killed in the encounter.

Security forces recovered four rifles, including an AK-47, from the Maoists.

The incident took place on Friday night at Pardhauni village under Manpur police station limits, located over 150 km from here, when a team of security forces was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Inspector General of Police (Durg range) Vivekanand Sinha said.

The bodies of all Maoists had been recovered, which includes two women, an ITBP spokesperson said.

The ITBP is posted in Chhattisgarh for operations in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Maoist-affected areas.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of ultras in the village, security forces had launched the operation.

“When the patrolling team was cordoning off the area, Naxals suddenly came out of the village and the encounter broke out between the two sides,” he said.

“Police Sub Inspector (SI) S K Sharma, who was posted as the Station House Officer at Madanwada police station, lost his life in the gunfight,” the IG said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and bodies of the martyred official and the Naxals were evacuated out of the forest, he said, adding that search operation was underway in the area.

(With inputs from PTI)