Jagdalpur: Bastar Police on Saturday claimed that a total of 23 Maoists were killed in Minpa encounter that took place on 21 March, 2020 in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district of Bastar.
Inspector-General of Police (IG), Bastar, Sunderaj P, in a press release said while 23 Maoists were killed in Minpa encounter, 17 soldiers were also martyred in the joint operation by the District Reserve Group (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
He added that another encounter happened on September 8 and from the Maoists camps a number of detailed documents have been found.
The documents are said to be in the Gondi language.
In a letter that was in the documents, it was also found that the Moist group is facing hardship due to COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown period.
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"On September 8, a joint operation was launched by Sukma police from Bheji and Elarmadgu camp towards Pentapad-Entapad jungle area based on an intelligence input about the presence of CPI Maoist cadres of Konta/Kistaram Area Committee. After the encounter, we recovered a few letters from the spot. The security forces, while translating one of the letters addressed to a senior cadre from South Bastar Division in Gondi dialect, learnt that the Maoists suffered huge casualties of 23 cadres during the Minpa encounter which took place on March 21, 2020, " Sunderaj P told reporters.
“They have an acute shortage of provisioning and supply network have been chocked due to 24×7 check posts of the security forces along the interstate and inter-district borders. Medicine and ration supply remain the main area of concern for the red guerrillas during this period,” the release stated.
It also added that due to the increasing number of encounters and death, new recruits are hard to find.
