Chhattisgarh: Six maoist killed in operation prahaar

Six uniformed Maoist bodies were recovered on Wednesday after two separate exchanges of fire in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh police officials said, in an operation they have named “Prahaar 2”. In June this year, the Chhattisgarh Police had launched an operation involving 1500 personnel from the state police and paramilitary, called Operation Prahaar in Sukma, where four jawans were killed, and while the police claimed that over 20 Maoist were killed, only one body was recovered.

Senior police officials said that nearly every district launched Operation Prahaar on Monday evening, with close to 2000 personnel involved.

DM Awasthi, Special DG, Anti Naxal Operations said, “These operations were launched by the state police, CRPF, other paramilitary, DRG and STF last evening across the districts of Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Kanker and Bastar. Close to two thousand personnel are involved, and the operations are ongoing and will last at least till tomorrow.”

Awasthi said that there had been two separate exchanges of fire in Narayanpur district, deep inside the jungles of the unchartered Abhujmaad area on Tuesday, in which a total of six bodies of Maoist have been recovered, along with multiple weapons. “The first was in the morning near the jungles of Dhurbeda, where one Maoist body was recovered. The second was near Irpanar, where five Maoist bodies were recovered, which took place in the afternoon. Thus far, our personnel have not received any injuries or casuaties,” Awasthi said. He added that in the Narayanpur leg of the operation 450 personnel were involved, and two 303 rifles, five 315 rifles, one 12 bore rifle and one pistol were recovered.

While senior police officials declined from disclosing the exact location at this point, however they also claimed that there was an exchange of fire on the border of Sukma and Bijapur districts, neighbouring Telangana, where the Maoists allegedly left behind a massive cache of weapons and arms manufacturing devices, which have since been destroyed, The Indian Express.

Awasthi added, “The point of both Operation Prahaar is to enter areas where we would not go before, and this has happened this time as well. We are keeping an eye on developments closely.”

Source: The Indian Express