A Maoist was killed in an exchange of fire with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Monday, days after the state was declared free of armed Left-wing insurgents on March 31.
Police said the gun battle took place in a forested area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Maoist operation.
“So far, the body of a woman Maoist, along with a weapon, has been recovered from the spot,” an officer said.
The slain Maoist was identified as Rupi, a member of the Maoists’ Partapur area committee.
Union home minister Amit Shah told Parliament last month that the March 31 deadline for ending Left-wing extremism across the country had been met.
Shah said 4,839 Maoists surrendered, 706 were killed, and 2,218 were arrested and jailed over the three years of heightened anti-Maoist operations.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday last and presented a road map, envisaging education hubs, a medical college, irrigation projects, and adventure and eco-tourism, including canopy walks and a glass bridge in the jungles, for the erstwhile Maoist stronghold of Bastar.
