Three women among four Maoists killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh Dhamtari

Four Naxals, including three women, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district on Saturday, police said.

The skirmish took place in the morning in the forests between Khallari and Mechka villages when a team of the Special Task Force (STF) was out on an anti-naxal operation, state's Deputy Inspector General (anti-naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI.

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"After the exchange of fire stopped, bodies of four cadres, including three women, were recovered from the spot, along with seven firearms," he added. The search operation is still underway, he said.

The operations against the red rebels have been very successful over the last few months with several Maoists killed in over 20 encounters in the year 2019. Areas that suffer the Maoist insurgency most include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal and some of the eastern Uttar Pradesh states.