14 Naxals killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh

Fourteen Naxals were killed in an encounter on Monday with security forces near Sukma’s Konta and Golapalli police station limits. The Naxals were arrested with sixteen weapons. The encounter took place after a gunbattle on Monday morning was triggered in a forest area in south Sukma, around 500 km from Raipur, says Deputy Inspector General. The investigation is underway.

Chattisgarh has already witnessed at least two encounters in the first week of August. Chief Minister Raman Singh has appealed to Naxals to surrender and later join mainstream warning where the security forces were ready to destroy them. Singh added that the state was heading ahead to finish the Naxal menace.

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According to a statement released by Singh, the state government has given a strong message to Naxals that they should join the mainstream. Either they should surrender or security forces will be ready to finish them. Now there is no way left for them. Singh also weighed that the tribal population in the state should support the government to wash out Left Wing Extremism.

On August 3, an encounter at a weekly market in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh had lead to the killing of one Naxal while two policemen were injured. The police team was patrolling the area to secure its protection when the encounter took place. As per Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg, a group of 15 to 20 Naxalites, dressed as civilians, opened fire on two jawans and also attacked them with sharp weapons in a bid to kill them and loot their weapons, like in the previous attacks committed by ultras during the weekly markets.

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Earlier on August 1, another improvised explosive device – IED, agitated by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district injured a CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), jawan. The encounter happened under the limits of Basaguda police station. This took place when a team of CoBRA battalion – an elite unite of the CRPF – was out on a ‘search-cum-area domination’ operation.