Dantewada, Oct 18 (PTI) Two weeks after a major encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, where initially 31 Naxalites were killed by security forces, police on Friday said Maoists have now admitted seven more of their cadres lost their lives in the same gunfight, taking the toll to 38.
Police said all the 38 Naxalites gunned down in the October 4 encounter, the highest fatalities suffered by Maoists in a single operation in the state's 24-year-old history, were identified and they were collectively carrying a reward of Rs 2.62 crore.
Security personnel had recovered bodies of 31 Naxalites and a cache of automatic weapons following the encounter in the Abhujmaad area in a forest between Thulthuli and Nendur villages along the border of Narayanpur-Dantewada districts. A joint team of the state police's District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force (STF) was involved in the operation.
The East Bastar division of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), in a press statement, confirmed that seven more Naxalites died in the same encounter and they managed to take away their bodies with them during the gunfight, Dantewada Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Rai said.
With this admission, a total of 38 Naxalites were eliminated in the fierce encounter and identity of all of them have been ascertained, he said.
Of them, Niti alias Urmila, a woman member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) -- the strongest formation of Maoists -- was carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh on her head. She was the fourth DKSZC member to have been killed in encounters with security personnel this year in the state, Rai said.
Another key deceased cadre was Nandu Mandavi, a "commander" of the West Bastar division of Maoists. Mandavi was carrying a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, the police officer informed.
Of the remaining slain cadres, 22 were carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh each, nine Rs 5 lakh each and three Rs 2 lakh each, Rai said.
Of the 38 cadres killed in the gunfight, 36 were collectively carrying a reward of Rs 2.62 crore. They all were wanted in more than 250 Naxalite-related incidents in Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondgaon and Bastar districts, the SP said.
They were involved in 61 encounters with police, 11 attacks on police camps, triggering 17 IED blasts, nine incidents of arson and three of attacks on polling booths. In these incidents, 28 policemen and 23 civilians lost their lives, while 15 security personnel and 26 civilians sustained injuries, he said.
Twenty-nine of the 31 bodies recovered by security personnel following the encounter have been handed over to their relatives, the SP said.
Nearly 200 Maoists have been gunned down by security forces in separate gun-battles in the Bastar region comprising seven districts, including Dantewada and Narayanpur, so far this year, police said.
On April 16, as many as 29 Naxalites, including higher-ranking cadres, were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Kanker district.