Five Naxalites were killed during the encounter in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region on Saturday after a joint team of security personnel engaged in a gunfight with during an anti-Naxalite operation.
A senior official told PTI that the encounter broke out around 8 am in a forest in north Abujhmad along the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts.
The operation involved personnel belonging to the Border Security Force (BSF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF).
Reacting to the news of the encounter on Saturday morning, Chhattisgarh Dy CM Arun Sao told ANI, "As per the promise, the double-engine government is taking strong steps for making Bastar Naxal-free. Our security forces are going to remote areas and fighting the Naxalites... We are moving Bastar towards development by gradually making it Naxal-free..."
