Security forces killed 14 Maoists, including wanted ultras Mangtu (DVCM) and Hunga Madkam, in separate gunfights in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma and Bijapur districts in the Bastar region on Saturday, officials said.
Twelve Maoists, including Mangtu (DVCM), were neutralised during an exchange of fire in Sukma, while the bodies of two Maoist cadres, including Hunga Madkam, were found in the forests of Gaganpalli village in Basaguda, Bijapur, senior officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
In Bijapur, security forces recovered one SLR rifle and one 12-bore rifle along with the bodies of the two Maoists, officials said.
A senior police official said the encounter in Sukma broke out in the southern region of the district when a team of security personnel was out on an "anti-Maoist operation".
A separate gunfight erupted in Bijapur when a team of the District Reserve Guard, a unit of the state police, was out on a similar operation around 5 am in a forested area in the southern region of the district, another official said.
Intermittent firing was underway when the last reports were received, and further details were awaited, the official added.
Chhattisgarh has remained a key focus of anti-Maoist operations, with repeated deployments across Bastar’s forested districts.
Last year, 285 Maoists were gunned down in separate encounters with security forces in the state.
