Bhubaneswar, April 12: An unidentified female Maoist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Leleri forest under Narayanpatna area of Koraput district, around 500km from here, early this morning.

The exchange of fire took place between the rebels and the security forces when a combing operation was going on in the area.

Koraput superintendent of police Charan Singh Meena said the female Maoist, killed in the gunfight, was yet to be identified. "These details will take time. We have also seized some material from the Maoist camp," he said without divulging any more details.

Sources said police and the central paramilitary forces deployed in the area had been tipped-off about the presence of the rebels in the forest. When the security personnel launched a combing operation in the area, the Maoists began firing at them. The security forces retaliated, killing one rebel. The gun battle had continued for about 30 minutes. Combing in the area has been intensified.

Koraput and the neighbouring Malkangiri district have long been Maoist bastions.

On February 1, the rebels had triggered a landmine blast in the Sunki valley of Koraput district, killing eight personnel of Odisha police, who were on their way to Angul in a van to attend a training programme.

In August 2013, a similar blast by the Maoists in the Sunki valley had killed four Border Security Force jawans.

In the wake of the February blast, the state government had suspended a senior police officer for dereliction of duty. There were allegations that the standard operating procedure had not been followed while the police personnel, most of them drivers, were on their way to Angul from Koraput in a police vehicle for training. The rebels targeted the vehicle as it neared Mungarbhumi in the Sunki valley, barely 1km from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border.

The Odisha Human Rights Commission has also sought a report on the blast from the principal secretary of the home department and the director-general of police.

Sources said that even as combing operation had been stepped up in all the Maoist-dominated areas of Koraput district, attempts were also on to seal the district's border with Chhattisgarh with mounting fears that the rebels from the neighbouring state might sneak into the Odisha areas. "This has happened in the past and can happen again. If this happens, things will become all the more difficult for us. So, we are not willing to take chances," said a police officer not wishing to be quoted.