Naxals kill 2 jawans, injure five in Sukma

Raipur, June 24

Two security personnel were killed and five others injured, in two encounters with Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Sukma district, police said. One Naxal was gunned down during the operation, they said.

“While two district reserve guard (DRG) jawans were killed, five special task force (STF) personnel injured in two gun-battles between a joint team of security forces and ultras under Chintagufa police station limits in the district,” said Special DGP (anti-Maoist operations) DM Awasthi.

A composite squad of the STF, the DRG, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit-CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) was out on the operation based on inputs about the location of Maoist hideouts in the interiors of Chintagufa, around 500 km from here, since yesterday.

When the security forces were advancing through the forests of Dondamarka around 10.30 am today, armed Naxals opened fire, leading to a gun-battle.

“Five STF personnel sustained bullet injuries, three of them critically, in the face-off following which reinforcement was sent to evacuate them,” the Special DGP said. The injured were airlifted to Raipur and admitted at a private hospital here.

A team of security forces on its way back to the base again came under fire from the ultras near Durma village around 3.30 pm in which two DRG jawans were killed, he said.