Hindustan Times : May 09, 2020, 10:35 AM
Rajnandgaon: A sub-inspector of police lost his life and four Maoists, including a divisional committee member of CPI(Maoist), were killed during a gunfight in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district on Friday night, officials said on Saturday.The encounter took place at around 10.30pm in the jungles near Pardhoni village under Manpur police station when the police team was out on an anti-Maoist operation.“We had got a pin-point Information about the Maoists and hence a team was made to nab them. When we were cordoning off Pardhoni, the Maoists started firing. In retaliation, we also started firing. Our sub-inspector SK Sharma lost his life in Maoist firing,” Jitendra Shukla, Rajnandgaon’s superintendent of police (SP), said while speaking to HT.Sharma, a resident of Surguja district was also the in-charge of the Madanvada police station.Shukla said they have gunned down Ashok, the divisional committee member, and Krishna, who was the area committee member of CPI (Maoist).“Two other woman cadres, Sarita and Pramila, were junior cadres and working as party members,” he added.“We have also recovered an AK-47 assault rifle, one SLR and two 315 bore rifle from the spot and searching of the whole area is going on,” the SP added.Police said that the team of Maoist was camping in Pardhoni jungles since Friday evening.Rajnandgaon comes under the newly-formed zone of Maoists. Maoists have built a new red corridor on the tri-junction of three states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone. Many documents recovered suggest Maoists are continuously moving in that area to strengthen the new zone and recruitment for the area was also done.Senior officers of Chhattisgarh believe there are about 180 armed Maoists now in the Vistaar Dalam of the MMC zone, who are trying to establish their grip in the MMC zone. The new zone is said to be a refuge for hardcore Maoists of Bastar and other regions. Most of the cadres in this region were recruited from South Bastar.