Three Maoists killed in Bijapur encounter

Security forces on Saturday killed three Naxalites, one of them carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh, in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, police sources said.

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It was the first encounter in the state after Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to the Naxalites to lay down arms and join the mainstream last week.

A gunfight broke out on a forested hill in the Indravati National Park area around 9 am on Saturday, when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Sundarraj P, IG, Bastar Range, said.

One of the three slain Maoists was Anil Punem, an area committee member who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head. Punem was allegedly the mastermind of the blast carried out by the Maoists near Ambeli village in Bijapur in January, Sundarraj said.