Day after cop's bro killed, forces gun down five Maoists in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: At least five Maoists were killed till late Tuesday in a gunfight in 's Narayanpur district in Bastar division. A large cache of arms and ammunition was seized, police said.
Notably, the security forces launched an anti-Naxalite operation-'Operation Monsoon Prahar'-involving 1,000 troops from Kanker, Bastar, Dantewada and Kondagaon districts, in Abujhmarh area of Narayanpur district on Sunday.Teams of District Reserve Guards, Special Task Force, BSF and ITBP converged from multiple directions upon a deeply forested area close to the Maharashtra border, around 80km from Narayanpur district headquarters.
Bastar range IG P Sundarraj told TOI that Maoists laid an ambush for security forces in the forests of Kohkameta in Abujhmarh in Narayanpur district on Tuesday morning. Till Tuesday evening, five bodies had been recovered and the toll may go up as the gunbattle is still on, police said. The exact body count will be known when forces return to base, an officer said, adding that there was no injury so far among the jawans. On Monday, Maoists kidnapped a policeman's brother and murdered him accusing him of being a police informer in the district's Orchha village. As many as 137 Maoists have been gunned down this year in Bastar division.