DSMD personnel of the anti-Naxal forces were busy scanning a road with a metal detector in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. Photo file | Photo credit: Hindu

Five Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday (Oct 21, 2024), police said.

Also read: Government is making all efforts to free Gadchiroli from Naxalite violence: Eknath Shinde

The shootout, in which commandos of the Gadchiroli Police’s Specialized Combat Unit C-60 played a leading role, took place in a forest in Bhamragadh Taluka in eastern Maharashtra and came just a month before the Assembly elections.

A press release issued by the Gadchiroli SP office said that in connection with the November 20 elections, a group of Naxalites had gathered in the forest on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border for the last two days and were planning an attack.

The report said that 22 teams of C-60 commandos and two CRPF squads under the leadership of senior officers have launched the anti-Naxal operation.

As soon as they reached this place, they faced indiscriminate firing from the Naxalites. Security personnel immediately responded and in the ensuing gun battle, five Maoists were killed, the report said.