31 Naxals killed in encounter with police in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region; CM Deo says ‘Naxalism is certainly going…’

At least 31 Naxals were killed in an ongoing joint operation by DRG Dantewada and STF Narayanpur in the Maad area on the Narayanpur-Dantewada border, said police on Friday.

The encounter broke out in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of the Narayanpur and Dantewada districts.

ANI reported that the total number of Naxals killed in the encounter has increased to 31, and more automatic weapons were recovered.

A joint team of security personnel—from Narayanpur and Dantewada—is involved in the action, and they are reported to be safe.

An official said that the bodies of the Naxalites were recovered after after the guns fell silent.

A search operation is still underway in the area, he added.

Superintendent of Police Gaurav Rai said around 30 Naxalites were killed in the gun battle, reported PTI.

“A cache of weapons, including an AK-47 rifle and one SLR (self-loading rifle), were recovered from the encounter spot,” PTI reported quoting the official.

So far this year, 185 Naxals have been gunned down by security forces in separate gun battles in the Bastar region.

Reacting to the development, Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Said that it was a big operation and congratulated all the police personnel. "

I bow to their valour... Naxalism is taking its last breath... Naxalism is certainly going to be eliminated from the state," Deo added.

Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker & former CM Raman Singh said, “This is a huge success, I congratulate the Chief Minister, Home Minister and the entire team for this great operation. The thinking and vision of Union Home Minister Amit Shah have done a great job in the double-engine government and they deserve congratulations... Congratulations to everyone for such a big operation for the first time.”

On Thursday, security forces busted a Naxalite camp in the Sukma district in the Bastar region and recovered a huge cache of explosives and other materials.

On October 1, police recovered three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted beneath a dirt track by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.

The IEDs, weighing 5 kg each, were detected near Hokpad village on the Kasturmeta-Mohndi villages road when a joint team of the district force and 53rd battalion of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was out on patrolling duty, the official said.

On September 30, Amit Kumar, Additional Director General (ADG) of the CRPF, said that Naxalism is largely confined to two or three districts of Chhattisgarh and left-wing extremism will become history in the next one-and-a-half years.

Kumar, a top officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), said that the Naxalite movement is in its last phase.

He claimed that some other states, which used to be affected by left-wing extremism in the past, have now become Naxal-free.