Nagpur: Five Naxalites were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday, police said. The gunfight, in which commandos of the C-60 specialized combat unit of the Gadchiroli police played a leading role, took place in a forest in Bhamragad taluka in the eastern Maharashtra district and comes just one month ahead of the State Assembly polls.
At least 2,500 rounds were fired in the joint operation, which was wrapped up before sunset after seizure of ammunition and five bodies of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) fighters. The encounter turned dramatic with an unprecedented display of bravado by a woman pilot, who landed her Pawan Hans chopper, just a few feet above the encounter site to airlift a wounded commando even as guerrillas rained rockets from their bastion.
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Tue 21 Oct. 2024
Though she was unable to land on rough terrain, the injured jawan was hauled up with a rope into the low-flying copter and taken to Nagpur via Gadchiroli for medical treatment. He took three bullets and his condition is serious, said doctors.
The killed guerrillas included three women cadres, who were part of Company 10 formation of Naxals. This group is entrusted with guarding the dense forest and undulating terrain of Abujmarh, the nerve centre of Naxals in Central India.
The encounter took place at two vantage points, 7 km apart, deep in the Abujmarh forests on the Chhattisgarh side of the Red corridor. C-60 and CRPF commandos moved inside three days ago and were quietly combing the area for landmines, before engaging with the guerrillas, who guarded the Maoist bastion and their top commanders.
Reports stated top PLGA leader Prabhakaran, who heads the Gadchiroli division, had a miraculous escape after he wriggled out of the security cordon with help of bodyguards. The commandos were in the process of surrounding the Naxals, by deploying their ‘circular cut-off’ strategy, when armed rebels of Company 10 formation began firing. Prabhakaran fled, while his colleagues faced bullets from the commandos.
The operation, which kicked off on Saturday as a pre-election security strategy, also followed the diktat of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who issued a March 2026 deadline for Chhattisgarh and December 2025 for Maharashtra to wipe out Naxalism from their states. Sophisticated weapons like INSAS rifles, AK rifles, and other assault rifles, along with a cache of ammunition, magazines, walkie-talkies, detonator wires, explosives, and other materials, were found at ground zero.
Following an intelligence input, commando teams crossed the Koparshi nullah to venture into the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. While a section of the squads was led by Additional SP Yatish Deshmukh, the other was led by Additional SP M Ramesh. Deshmukh engaged with PLGA near Tekameta hamlet, 2km off Maharashtra border and Additional SP, Ramesh, cornered the guerrillas near Kothur hamlet, 7km inside Chhattisgarh.
SP Gadchiroli Neelotpal stated the Abujmarh encounter was part of the pre-election security exercises aimed at flushing out Naxals from the peripheries of the Maharashtra border. “The operation was planned in the backdrop of the ensuing election,” he said.
A week ago, Maharashtra DGP Rashmi Shukla and CRPF DGP Anish Dayal Singh met at Gadchiroli, where the blueprint of Operation Abujmarh was hammered out, as per direction of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
State Anti-Naxal Operation Cell in charge Sandip Patil, Deputy Inspector General of Police Ankit Goyal, and several top officials of Chhattisgarh were present at the meeting. Gadchiroli police are now trying to identify bodies of neutralized PLGA fighters.
