Five Naxalites killed, three jawans injured in encounter in Chhattisgarh

Narayanpur: Seven Naxalites were killed and three jawans injured in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Friday, police said.

The gunfight took place at around 3pm in a forest near Gobel and Thulthuli villages in Orchha area, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, a senior police official said.

Personnel belonging to the police's District Reserve Guard from Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Dantewada and Bastar districts and the 45th battalion of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were involved in the operation, he said.

After guns fell silent, bodies of seven Naxalites in uniform and some weapons were recovered from the spot, he said.

Three jawans were also injured in the gun battle, he said, adding a search operation was underway in the area.

The identity of the slain Naxalites was yet to be ascertained, the official informed.

With this incident, 125 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters with security forces in the state so far this year.

On May 23, seven Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in the forest on the Narayanpur-Bijapur inter-district border, while 12 were gunned down in Bijapur district on May 10.

Ten Naxalites, among them three women, were killed in an encounter in a forest along the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts on April 30, and 29 died in an encounter in Kanker district on Apil 16, police said.