By IANS
Raipur : At least five special police officers (SPOs) were killed and three critically wounded Monday in a gun battle with Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s southern Bijapur district, police said.
“We have five casualties, all SPOs,” Ratanlal Dangi, the Bijapur district superintendent of police, told IANS by telephone from Pamulvaya village, about 500 km south of Raipur.
Dangi said two SPOs and a police constable received bullet injuries in the battle that began in the morning. The injured have been rushed to a government hospital in Bijapur.
SPOs are youths recruited from the local tribal population to assist the police in the campaign against Maoists.
The fighting erupted Monday when a joint patrol of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the police and SPOs went to the village and were attacked by about 200 heavily armed leftwing radicals.