Gadchiroli Police identifies 16 Maoists killed in encounter; 'most carried heavy bounties'

In a major success for the Maharashtra police, at least 26 militants including two top commanders were neutralized during anti-Maoist operations on November 13.

"We had intelligence inputs that in a forest area that significant number of Maoists are present there. Following the leads, we deployed patrolling teams. Maoists opened fire at our search parties in the Gyarapatti area of Gadchiroli in the morning and our parties strongly retaliated," said SP Ankit Goel. 

The exchange of fire commenced at around 6 am and continued intermittently for 9 hours. The militants took cover behind huge rocks and fired from AK-47, SLR, UBGL, the official informed. As per the Gadchiroli police, the 26 slain Maoists include 20 men and 6 women - most carrying heavy bounties on their heads.

"In the encounter, 4 jawans were injured. They were airlifted to a hospital in Nagpur. The condition all of them is stable. During the search, a huge cache of sophisticated weapons and ammunition was recovered. Bodies of 26 Naxals including 6 women were also found. A central committee member of the CPI (Maoist) - Milind Baburao Teltumbde was killed in operations along with another top commander. 16 bodies were identified and 10 more yet to be identified," SP Goel said. 

Top Maoist Leader Milind Teltumbde Killed

As per Gadchiroli police, Milind Teltumbde a.k.a Jeeva or Deepak was the head of the newly formed MMC zone (Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh confluence) of CPI(Maoist). Carrying a Rs 50 lakh bounty on his head, Teltumbde was one of the accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad violence case. Forces are still combing the forest area for detecting more Maoists.

The Gadchiroli Police speculates there were at least 100 Maoists at that location during the encounter. Some of the neutralized Maoists belong to Gadchiroli while others are from Chhattisgarh. The number of militants in the region has increased significantly, the official said, adding that. new recruits and youths are being trained and inducted into their formation teams. "This success is so big that Maharashtra, MP, and Chhattisgarh all three states will benefit from this operation," said the SP.