Top Maoist Leader and 11 Others Killed in Major Chhattisgarh Clash

The killed Maoist leader, Shankar Rao, had a Rs 25 lakh reward on his head. A significant amount of weapons, including AK-47 and INSAS rifles, were recovered when a joint team of District Reserve Guard and Border Security Force was attacked in forests near the village of Binagunda.

Three security personnel were injured in the gunfight, two of whom are from the BSF. Their condition is stable, but the third, from the DRG, is in critical care.

All three received treatment at a local hospital and are to be shifted to a larger facility. The fighting began at around 2 PM as a joint DRG-BSF team was conducting an anti-Maoist operation.

The DRG, established in 2008 to combat Maoist activities in the state, and the Border Security Force, extensively deployed in the area for counter-insurgency ops, were involved. Last month, there was another encounter in the district where a Maoist and a cop were killed, and security forces recovered a gun, some explosives, and other incriminating materials.

Personnel from the DRG and Bastar Fighters, both units of the state police force, along with the Border Security Force, were involved in that operation. The recent gun battle occurred in a forested area when the patrolling team was fired upon indiscriminately.

This incident recalls a similar gunfight that broke out between security forces and Maoist rebels in the same district in November last year. During the same period, Maoists also fired at DRG personnel deployed near a polling station in Banda in Dantewada district, coinciding with the first phase of an Assembly election in the state.