A day after top Naxal leader Sudhakar was eliminated by security forces in Indravati National Park area in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, an encounter broke out in the same area on Friday, an official said.
The encounter is part of the same anti-Naxal operation underway since Wednesday by personnel from the state police's Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG) as well as the CRPF's specialised unit CoBRA, he added.
Intermittent firing between security forces and the Maoist ultras is underway, the official said, adding further details were awaited. Senior Maoist leader Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar, who had a bounty of ₹40 lakh on his head, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Bijapur district on Thursday.
Originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh, the 67-year-old Sudhakar was involved in indoctrination and radicalisation of youth and also responsible for numerous Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh, resulting in the death of civilians and security personnel, police said.
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The killing of Sudhakar, a member of the Maoists' Central Committee, comes a fortnight after CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70) was neutralised by security forces in the Bastar region. Basavaraju was gunned down in Narayanpur on May 21.
Sudhakar who carried a reward of ₹40 lakh on his head was killed in an encounter with security forces in the National Park area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday. Acting on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Naxal cadres in the forested area, a joint team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force (STF) launched a coordinated operation.
During the exchange of fire which lasted for several hours, Maoist Central Committee member Sudhakar, one of the most wanted Naxal leaders, was killed. Last month, Communist Party of India (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao, also known as Basavaraju, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh. He was among 30 Naxals eliminated in the dense Abujhmad forests, a Naxal stronghold.
One of his party’s most feared strategists, Rao was part of the Naxalite movement since the late 1970s. He carried a bounty of ₹1.5 crore and was wanted in connection with several deadly attacks on security forces in several states.
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