RAIPUR: Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel along with three state policemen were killed on Saturday during a gun battle with Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district. A total of 20 security forces suffered injuries in the incident.
It was a joint anti-Maoist operation conducted by CRPF's elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force (STF) in the Tarrem area in which the shootout began at noon, the CRPF said.
The operation is still on and some Maoists are also suspected to be killed during the exchange of fire.
"Two CRPF personnel and three state police personnel lost their lives during the CASO (Cordon and Search Operation) conducted by a joint team of security forces that included the CRPF, and Chhattisgarh's DRG and STF teams, " CRPF IG C.G. Arora told IANS.
The officer said that around 20 security personnel were injured in the operation.
On March 23, five personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) were killed and several injured in an IED blast-- the first major Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh this year -- in what the police said was a Maoist strike targeting a bus carrying more than 20 security personnel.
The security personnel were travelling as part of a Maoist operation in the dense Abujhmad forests when the blast occurred at around 4.15 p.m., on the Kanhargaon-Kadenar road.
Meanwhile, five Maoists, one of them allegedly involved in the killing of four policemen after abducting them in 2015, were arrested last month from two places in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.