At the very least 18 Maoists have been killed and no less than three troopers additionally sustained accidents throughout an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Tuesday. The incident comes simply days earlier than the graduation of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Chatting with the information company ANI, senior police officer IK Elesela stated that the encounter remains to be underway within the area. 

The voting in Kanker is scheduled to happen on April 26.

The gunfight occurred at round 2 pm in Hapatola forest between Binagunda and Koronar villages below Chhotebethiya police station limits, when a joint staff of the Border Safety Power (BSF) and the state’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Naxal operation, a senior police official stated.

“As per preliminary data, no less than eight Naxalites have been gunned down within the encounter. An enormous cache of weapons was recovered from the spot,” he knowledgeable. The three safety personnel injured within the gunfight have been being shifted to a hospital for therapy, the official stated.