One CoBRA commando killed in encounter on Sukma-Bijapur border
A jawan of the specialised Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the Central Reserve Police Force was killed in an encounter with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists) Thursday morning on the border of Bijapur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, officials said. A Maoist was killed in the encounter.
The encounter broke out between 10 am and 11 am in Tumrel, an area that falls in Bijapur district close to Sukma border, after security forces received intelligence reports on the presence of Maoists in the area. A joint operation was then undertaken by Sukma District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Central Reserve Police Force's elite force CoBRA battalion 210.
Significantly, this operation comes at a time when the state is making a massive anti-insurgency push in an attempt to meet the March 26 deadline set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to root out Left-Wing Extremism. It also comes a day after 27 Maoists were killed in a major encounter in the state's Abujhmad – an area located largely in Narayanpur district but also extends into Bijapur, Dantewada and Kanker in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, and Bhamragarh in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.
Among the significant casualties in that operation was Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basava Raju, the 70-year-old chief of CPI (Maoist).
It also comes days after the security forces called off a major anti-insurgency operation codenamed 'Operation Black Forest' on Karegutta Hills on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border. Security forces have hailed the operation as a success, claiming that it has broken up the Maoists dreaded Battalion 1 of its armed People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA).
Another CoBRA jawan who was injured in Thursday's encounter is currently being evacuated using a chopper, police said.
'During the encounter, a Maoist was gunned down. Unfortunately, one of our jawans suffered a bullet wound and succumbed,' one official said.
This is the third jawan to have lost his life in Naxal violence in the state in the last two days, taking the total toll of jawans killed this year to 17. On Wednesday, two DRG jawans were killed in separate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts during the Abujhmad operation.
The latest development takes the total number of Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh in 201, of which 184 were in Bastar region alone.
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