At least 27 Naxalites were killed during a fierce encounter with security forces along the Narayanpur-Bijapur border in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.Sources claim that top Maoist leader Basavaraju was among them.A member of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), was also killed in action while some others sustained injuries, PTI reported. The gunfight broke out in the dense forested Abhujmad region following a large-scale anti-Naxal operation launched by the state police, officials said.The exchange of fire began after armed Maoists ambushed joint teams of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Narayanpur, Bijapur, Dantewada, and Kanker districts.Acting on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior cadres from the Maoists’ ‘Mad’ division, the security forces had launched a combing operation deep inside the Abhujmad area, a known Naxalite stronghold.“Naxalites opened indiscriminate fire as our teams approached their hideout. In retaliatory action, more than 26 Maoists were killed,” a senior police officer said, adding that weapons and other materials were recovered from the site.Sources claimed that Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) who was in his late 60s, was among the slain Maoists, though police did not confirm it officially.(With inputs from PTI)
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