31 Maoists killed in recent Bijapur encounters: Cops

Raipur: Amid continued secrecy over the Karegutta Hills operation, security forces in Bastar on Monday announced that 31 Maoists have been killed in the ‘recent' encounters in Bijapur.

The Karegutta Hills range is in Bijapur district, along the Telangana border, where a 'decisive operation' involving 24,000 troops is on since April 21.

Monday's police statement doesn't specify exactly when and where these ‘recent encounters' happened.

However, it's apparent that these gunfights were spread over several days as 11 bodies have been handed over to their families.

The Bijapur police statement on Monday said, "In the recent police-Maoist encounter in the border region of Bijapur, the bodies of 20 Maoists recovered so far have been identified."

"Of them, 11 have been handed over to their families after completion of post-mortem and other legal formalities. The identification process for the remaining nine Maoist bodies recovered from the encounter is still ongoing," the statement said. Once identification is completed, those bodies will also be handed over to their families.

Officials on condition of anonymity said that the 31 Maoists were killed during the operation on Karegutta hills and bordering areas.

When asked for details, officials said that everything about the identification of the deceased Maoists and the encounter or operation will be divulged during a press briefing on Wednesday.

On May 3, one woman Maoist was killed in the Karegutta hills operation and on April 24, three women Maoists were gunned down in the same region, along with recovery of cache of weapons, explosives, and other materials. None of these four Maoists have been named as yet.

The high-profile operation was described as the biggest counter-insurgency operation in Bastar, that involved more than 24,000 troops from various units, including Chhattisgarh Police's District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and CoBRA unit, officials had said. The operation was launched after specific intelligence inputs were received about the presence of top Maoist leaders, including those from the Telangana state committee and the heavily armed battalion number one which is considered as the strongest Maoist military wing.