DRG jawan dies after encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh

A District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawan, who was injured in an encounter with Naxals on Saturday in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, has died, police said.

Five Naxals were killed on Saturday in the gun-battle with the DRG in a dense forest area of the district, located about 350 km from the state capital Raipur.

Two DRG jawans, identified as Raju Netam and Somaru Gota, were also injured in the encounter.

"Netam received critical bullet injuries to his vital organs. He succumbed while being evacuated from the forest," Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg told PTI on Sunday.

Acting on a specific intelligence input about the location of a Naxal training camp near Dhurbeda village in core area of the Maoist hotbed of Abhujmad, a team of DRG, comprising over 100 personnel, raided the place around 6 am on Saturday, he said.

The gunfight lasted for about an hour, following which the ultras disappeared into the dense forest.

During search, bodies of five ultras were recovered along with a huge cache of weapons, explosives and Maoist documents from the spot, he said.

Garg said bad weather and hostile terrain hampered the evacuation operation as three attempts to airlift the injured personnel from the forest failed due to continuous rainfall in the area.

"The security personnel brought their injured colleagues on cots over their shoulders. They reached Orchha, where the ambulance and doctors were arranged,around 10 pm (nearly 15 hours after the encounter) on Saturday," he said.

While Netam was declared brought dead, Gota was admitted to a private hospital in Raipur where his condition was reported to be out of danger, he said.

The killed ultras were yet to be identified, the official said, adding that prima facie, it seems they belonged to military company no. 1 of Maoists.