Mumbai: The Gadchiroli police in a fierce gun battle with the Maoists have busted a Maoist camp and hideout near the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border and have seized a cache of arms, including one automatic weapon INSAS and one single shot rifle, one magazine, several live rounds and detonators.
According to Superintendent of police, Gadchiroli, Neelotpal, an anti-Maoist operation was planned by the Gadchiroli Police on Sunday, on the basis of information received from confidential sources that some armed Maoists of Bhamragarh Dalam were encamped on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border near Kawande.
Based on this information, on Sunday evening, about 200 jawans under the leadership of Additional Superintendent of Police M. Ramesh, were dispatched to the jungle area to carry out an anti-Maoist campaign. After reaching the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border near Mauja Kawande, a search operation was started by the jawans of the special mission team, officials said.
"On Monday morning, while the police team was carrying out a search operation, the Maoists started firing indiscriminately towards the jawans when they got a clue that the police team had arrived. At that time, the jawans also bravely fired at the Maoists in retaliation and in self-defence. Interestingly, in a period of about 02 hours, Maoists fired at the police party at three different places. At this time, seeing the increasing pressure from the police, the Maoists took advantage of the dense forest and fled from the spot," said a police officer.
"When the jawans conducted a search operation in the said area, one INSAS automatic rifle, one single shot rifle, one magazine, one detonator, one radio set, two walkie-talkies along with their chargers and a large amount of Maoist materials were seized from the said place. During the said anti-Maoist operation, the police jawans successfully managed to completely destroy the camp where the Maoists were encamped and make the Maoists retreat once again. The Gadchiroli police have given instructions to intensify the anti-Maoist campaign in the sadar jungle area," the official said.
