Maharashtra: at least 26 Maoists killed in encounter in Gadchiroli

In Maharashtra, at least 26 Maoists were killed on Saturday in an encounter with police in the forest of Gadchiroli district. According to the SP Ankit Goyal the police have  recovered the bodies of 26 naxals so far from the forest. The gun battle took place in the morning at Korchi in Mardintola forest area when a C-60 police commando team was conducting a search operation led by additional SP Soumya Munde,Goyal said. The encounter was one of the longest in the history of Gadchiroli—it started at around 6 am and ended by 4 pm. Four police personnel were also seriously injured in the action and were taken to Nagpur by a helicopter for treatment, officials had said.  The injured policemen have been identified as Ravindra Naitam, Sarveshwar Atram, Maharu Kudmethe and Tikaram Katange.

The Gadhchiroli district lies on the border of Chhattisgarh.As per initial reports received at the Gadchiroli district headquarters, the encounter was with a Dalam of the banned CPI(Maoist) and commandos of the crack C-60 unit of the Anti Naxal Operations. Now, a massive combing operation has also been undertaken to detect more bodies of the slain extremists.  Saturday’s encounter is the second biggest in the history of Gadchiroli.