Chaibasa:Two Naxals, including a woman cadre, were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Jharkhand's Chaibasa district on Wednesday, police said.
The deceased have been identified as zonal commander Sanjay Ganjhu and area commander Hemanti, friend of Anal Da, who is carrying a bounty of Rs one crore. Search operation is still underway in the area, they added.
The encounter broke out when a joint team of Jharkhand Police, CRPF and Jaguar Force went out on a search operation in the forests near Bilati Tola under Sonuwa police station area of Chaibasa this morning. Upon seeing the security forces, Naxalites opened fire prompting jawans to resort to a retaliatory firing. Taking advantage of the dense forest, Naxalites escaped from the spot. During the search operation that followed, security personnel recovered two bodies and seized several weapons from the forest.
On information, Jharkhand Police IG (campaign) Amal V Homkar left for Chaibasa to boost the morale of the security forces. According to Jharkhand Police, due to lack of mobile network in the area, complete information could not be gathered yet. "Security forces had gone out for a search operation in the Naxal-affected area of Sonuwa. At around 7:00 am, as soon as the police team moved towards the forest, the Naxalites ambushed them and two of them were killed in retaliatory police action," Jharkhand Police officials confirmed.