Hours after Operation Sindoor, Indian security personnel neutralise 22 Naxalites with Operation Sankalp in Chhattisgarh

While the nation's attention was glued to Operation Sindoor, security forces conducted an assault on left extremists in the forests of Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district. 22 Naxalites were killed in an encounter in the forests of Bijapur bordering Telangana on Wednesday as Operation Sankalp, the massive counter-insurgency initiative, wages on in the area, a senior police official said.

 

According to reports, the gunfight broke out in the morning in the Karregutta Hills forest along the interstate border. Police sources said that the dead bodies of 22 Naxalites have been recovered so far and the search operation is still underway. Many senior-level Maoists have either been killed or seriously injured during the gunfight before being dragged to the safety of deep forests by their "comrades," the officials said.

 

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The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of senior cadres of Battalion No. 1, the strongest military formation of Maoists, Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) and Telangana state committee of Maoists, news agency PTI reported. The area surrounded by dense forests and lined by hills is believed to be the base of the Maoist Battalion No. 1, it added.

 

 

The total number of Naxalites gunned down under Operation Sankalp since April 21 has now climbed to 26.

 

24,000 security personnel from different units including District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), all units of state police, Central reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA are involved in the counter-insurgency operation going on Bastar.

 

 

 

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The official said hundreds of Naxal hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed so far during the operation, and a huge cache of explosive material, detonators, medicines, and other items was seized.

 

With the latest action, 168 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 151 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur. 

India