Encounter on Sat hit Naxals' Maha-MP-C'garh group hard: Cop

The self-styled Darrekasa Area Committee of the Naxals has lost five out of its eight members following the encounter with security forces in Ranjangaon area of Chhattisgarh on Saturday, a senior official said.

Seven ultras, including five women, were killed in the firefight with security forces in Sitagota-Serpar forests under Baghnadi police station area of Rajnandgaon on Saturday morning.

It has delivered a body blow to the plans of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist) to expand its activities at the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh tri-junction, he claimed.

"The Darrekasa Area Committee (DAC) of the Maoists has suffered a major jolt in Saturday's encounter as it lost five out of its eight members. Two others killed in the encounter were part of Vistaar Platoon no 1," Deputy Inspector General (anti-naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI on Sunday.

"The biggest achievement is the killing of DAC secretary Sukhdev (40), who was carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh on his head, and his wife Pramila (36), with a reward of Rs 5 lakh," he said.

The DAC is part of the GRB (Gondia in Maharashtra, Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh) division of the Naxals, he added.

He said the area did not see any major attack on security forces but there were incidents of tribals being killed on suspicion of being informers, and damage to infrastructure like mobile phone towards and construction equipment.

"It is for the first time that security forces have achieved such major success eliminating seven ultras together in this area," the DIG said.

Sundarraj said operations were also being carried out against 'Vistaar platoons 2 and 3', active in the northern part of Rajnandgaon and Kabirdham districts respectively.