By IANS,
Raipur : One trooper and four Maoist rebels were killed in a prolonged gunbattle Wednesday in a jungle stretch of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The gun fight took place in an interior forested area of Narayanpur district that is part of state’s sprawling mineral rich but restive Bastar region.
The gunfight broke out when Maoists opened indiscriminate fire on a contingent of state policemen who were on anti-Maoist operation in Tirkanar forested area, some 280 km south from capital Raipur.
“It was a fierce and lengthy gun battle, we lost one jawan who is drawn from Special Task Force (STF) but we too gunned down four militants,” Prashant Agrawal, additional superintendent of police, Narayanpur, told reporters.
He added that bodies of the four ultras killed in the fight were recovered along with some explosives, arms and Maoist literature.
Police were combing the nearby area in a bid to recover more bodies of Maoists as they suspect a few rebels who had received gun shot injuries during the gun fight were carried away by their armed colleagues deep inside the jungle.