Naxalite killed in face-off with police in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: A Naxalite was on Sunday gunned down in an exchange of fire with security personnel at a forest in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said.

The skirmish took place this morning in the forest near Surakheda village, Bijapur Superintendent of Police K L Dhruv told PTI.

Based on specific inputs, a team of district force had launched a search operation in the forest at Bhairamgarh, around 450 kms away from the state capital, he said.

When the security men were cordoning off a forest patch near Surakheda, the Naxals started firing on them which led to a gun-battle. However, the ultras soon escaped into the dense forest, the SP said.

Later during a search, police recovered the body of a Maoist clad in 'uniform', he said.

They also recovered a muzzle loading gun, a country made 303 pistol, some detonators, a tiffin bomb and wires from the spot, he said.

"The killed Naxal was identified as Ratan Ujji alias Hemla Ratan, a member of small action team of the ultras," Dhruv said.

As per preliminary information, Ratan served in various key positions in the outlawed CPI (Maoist), including as deputy commander of Mirtoor LOS (local organisation squad) and head of Matwada's Janatana Sarkar group, the SP said.