A joint team of Sukma District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) — an elite force of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) – undertook the operation after receiving intelligence reports on the presence of Maoists in the area. The encounter broke out at 6 pm under the Kistaram police station which is located towards the Bijapur district and Telangana state, Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran Chavan said.

This is the second encounter in the Sukma-Bijapur area Thursday. Another encounter in the area saw the deaths of a jawan of the CoBRA Battalion 210 as well as Maoist.

Two more security personnel were injured in the encounter.

The two encounters came a day after a 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).

A total of 17 jawans have been killed in the Naxal violence since the beginning of this year. The anti-insurgency push has also led to a total of 202 Maoists being killed – 185 of which were in Bastar alone.