31 suspected Maoists killed in security operation in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar

Thirty-one suspected Maoists were killed on Friday in a security operation in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar, the police said.

The operation is still on, the security forces said on Saturday.

This reportedly marked the deadliest such operation in Chhattisgarh’s 24-year history. The state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000.

The suspected militants were reportedly gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Abujhmad, a 6,000 sq km uncharted forest near the state’s border with Maharashtra. The area is a stronghold of Maoist militants.

As Malini Subramaniam reported in Scroll since July, while many of those killed in Bastar this year have been declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute this. They said that the persons killed were civilians.

According to the Bastar Police, the gunfight on Friday began around 1 pm along the border between Narayanpur and Dantewada districts, near the villages of Govel, Nendur and Thulthuli, The Indian Express reported.

“Acting on the information [intelligence reports], a team of District Reserve Guards of Dantewada and Narayanpur were sent to the jungle for an anti-Naxal operation on Thursday night,” an unidentified officer told the newspaper.

The Districts Reserve Guards is a specialised unit comprising former Maoist militants who have laid down arms.

The bodies of the suspected Maoists who were killed on Friday are yet to be...

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