INDIA. Mumbai: 13 Naxals killed in an encounter with C-60 elite force of Maharashtra Police in a forest area at Paydi-Kotmi in Etapalli in Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in early hours of Friday, official sources said. Gadchiroli is about 900 km from Mumbai.
The encounter between the Police and Naxal’s broke at around 5:30 am where the Naxals had gathered for a meeting. Based on specific inputs, the Four C60 commando parties, comprising over 100 men, had launched a search operation in the forest. However, the ultras spotted the police party and opened fire, following which the police retaliated, in which 13 Naxals were killed.
The encounter lasted around 90 minutes, after which the remaining Naxals escaped into the dense forest. Some of them are reportedly injured. An SLR rifle, 8 mm rifle, `cooker bomb’, Improvised Explosive Devices and other material were seized by the police from the encounter site, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police told the “Transcontinental Times”.
All deceased Naxals were identified and mostly belonged to the “Kasansur Dalam”. This was the “second biggest success” for Gadchiroli police to date after the Boria-Kasnasur encounter in 2018 in which 41 Naxals were killed. With Friday’s operation, police have killed 22 Naxals this year. The previous encounter took place on May 16 in the Sawargaon area of North Gadchiroli, in which two Naxals were killed. Besides there have been encounters at other places in the area.Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli Eknath Shinde congratulated the police for their remarkable success in eliminating the Naxals in this daring operation.
At present, the season of collecting tendu leaves is on. Usually, the Naxals are on the move during this period for extortion from tendu leaves contractors.
The C-60 force comprising 60 police personnel was constituted in the year 1992 to contain the naxal menace. This innovative concept was introduced by the then Superintendent of Police K.P. Raghuvanshi. The men of this wing were imparted trainings in various types of guerrilla warfare from reputed training institutes in the country including Greyhound in Hyderabad, Hazaribag in Bihar and Unconventional Operation Training Centre (UOTC) from Nagpur.
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