Six Maoists including four women cadres were killed on Monday morning in an “exchange of fire” with a joint team of Telangana and Chhattisgarh police in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.
The inter-State, synchronised anti-Maoist operation was led by the Telangana police’s anti-Naxal force, the Greyhounds.
The intensification of the coordinated anti-Maoist operations in the volatile forested border region comes less than a week after the Maoists allegedly killed a former sarpanch Korasa Ramesh of Telangana’s K. Kondapuram village of Mulugu district adjoining Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district.
Acting on a tip-off that a large group of Maoists were planning to carry out attacks on police forces in the areas along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, a joint operation by Greyhounds, Bhadradri-Kothagudem district police, District Reserve Guard (Kistaram-Sukma) and personnel of the 141 CRPF Battalion was launched in the Pesallapadu forest area, said Superintendent of Police, Bhadradri-Kothagudem district Sunil Dutt.
Mr. Dutt said the exchange of fire took place between police forces and Maoist group southeast of Pesallapadu at about 7 a.m. Six Maoists were killed in the firing, the SP added.
Five weapons including two .303 rifles and three DBBLs, four rocket launchers, and other materials have been recovered from the site. Efforts are on to identify the six slain Maoists.
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