Jagdalpur/Raipur, October 5 (HS): Bastar Range Inspector General of Police Sundarraj P gave official information about the Naxal encounter today. In the press note issued to the media, the number of bodies of Naxals recovered in the encounter has been stated as 31. LMG rifle, SLR rifle, AK 47 rifle, INSAS rifle, caliber-303 rifle and many other weapons have been recovered from the spot. Search operation is still going on around the spot.

The Inspector General of Police said that the encounter started at around 1 pm on Friday afternoon in the forest between Thulthuli and Nendur villages in Abujhmad on the Narayanpur-Dantewada inter-district border. DRG and Special Task Force (STF) personnel of Dantewada and Narayanpur were involved in this operation. The operation was launched on Thursday afternoon. The operation was launched after information was received that Maoists of Company No. 6 and East Bastar Division were present on the hills of Gawadi, Thulthuli, Nendur and Rengwaya villages.

IG Bastar Range Sundarraj said that the bodies of three more Naxalites were recovered this morning from the dense forest where the encounter took place on Friday. The Naxalites have not been identified yet. Prima facie it appears that they belonged to the Maoists' PLGA (People's Liberation Guerrilla Army) Company No. 6, Platoon 16 and East Bastar Division of the Maoists.

Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar