Raipur: Three more bodies of Maoists were recovered on Wednesday morning in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district where a fierce encounter took place between security personnel and Maoists the previous day, police said. With this, the number of Maoists killed in the gun battle on Tuesday has risen to 13, they said.
Following the major anti-insurgency operation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the police on Tuesday found the bodies of 10 Maoists, including a woman.
During the search operation still underway in the area, the bodies of three more Maoists were recovered on Wednesday morning from a dense forest where the encounter took place, a senior police official said.
"The identity of the dead Maoists was yet to be ascertained but prima facie, it appears that they belonged to the PLGA (People's Liberation Guerrilla Army) company no. 2 of Maoists," the official said.
On Tuesday, a gunfight broke out between security forces and Maoists at around 6 am in the forest between Lendra and Korcholi villages under the Gangaloor police station area, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Maoist operation.
The intermittent firing lasted for a long time and the security forces continued search operations in the area. A light machine gun (LMG), a .303 rifle, a 12-bore gun, a large number of barrel grenade launchers and shells, and other arms and ammunition were also seized from the spot, police earlier said.
Bijapur district comes under the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to polls in the first phase of the general elections on April 19.
