The police on Saturday said that eight Naxalites have been killed in an ongoing encounter between security forces and Naxals in the jungle under Gangaloor Police Station limit in Bijapur. Senior officials said that search operations are underway.
The gunfight erupted around 8.30 am in the forest of the Gangaloor police station area, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, the official said. He said intermittent exchange of fire was still underway, and further details are awaited.
He said personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) are involved in the operation that was launched on Friday based on inputs about the presence of cadres of the `West Bastar division’ of the Maoists in the area.
