Two Naxals, including a woman, gunned down in Dantewada

Two Naxals, including a woman, were on Sunday gunned down in an encounter with the security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district.

A team of the District Reserve Group (GRP) was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Inspector General (Bastar Range) S.R.P. Kalluri said. The gun battle took place in Purangel forest which comes under Kirandul police station limits.

After a 1000-year-old Lord Ganesh on a thickly forested Dholkal mountain in Dantewada was damaged a few days ago, the security forces stepped up patrolling in the jungles adjacent to the mountain to trace the vandals, the IG said.

When the DRG team was advancing through the forest of Purangel, they came under heavy fire from a group of armed ultras, leading to a gun battle between both the sides.

A rifle, a revolver and a huge cache of medicines were recovered from the place, Mr. Kalluri added.

“The identity of the rebels is being ascertained. Prima facie, it appears that they belong to the medical supply team of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) as a large quantity of medicines was seized from the encounter spot,” the IG said.