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Chhattisgarh: Eerie silence grips Narayanpur after forces gun down 31 Maoists

Oct 08, 2024 10:44 AM IST

The encounter on Friday saw 31 armed Maoists gunned down, including 18 men and 13 women, on the Dantewada-Narayanpur border in Chhattisgarh.

The encounter site in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, where 31 Maoists were killed on Friday, bears stark evidence of the fierce battle that unfolded between ultras and security personnel.

A live ammunition at the site of the encounter in Chhattisgarh. (HT Photo)
A live ammunition at the site of the encounter in Chhattisgarh. (HT Photo)

Bullet shells scatter the ground, holes drilled in the trees, a grenade from an under-barrel launcher (UBL) lay strewn around in a 5-km radius of the jungle – the 10-hour gunfight marked the most significant blow to Maoists in the history of Left-wing extremism in India.

The encounter site is located 16 km from Orchha, the nearest market, and is accessible only after crossing four rivulets, navigating three hills, and passing dense foliage in the Abujhmaad forest. The closest village, Thulthuli, is 2km away.

Abujhmaad straddles between Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, and is called the ‘unknown hill’ as the 6,000 sqkm thick forest has not been surveyed since the British era. The jungle is the epicentre of Maoist activities and about a dozen senior cadres of CPI (Maoist) are said to be still camping there.

The encounter on Friday saw 31 armed Maoists gunned down, including 18 men and 13 women, on the Dantewada-Narayanpur border in Chhattisgarh. Of them, the 22 who were identified by the police carried a collective bounty of 1.65 crore.

Senior Maoist leader, Niti alias Urmila, who carried a bounty of 25 lakh on her head was a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) and East Bastar in-charge of CPI (Maoist). She is the fourth DKSZC member to die in an encounter this year in the state.

When HT visited the encounter site on Sunday afternoon, the villagers of Thulthuli were curious and initially hesitant to talk to outsiders. There was an eerie silence in the village, barring one child crying beneath a peepal tree. The villages in Abujhmaad are typically deserted during the day, as locals spend most of their time in the forests gathering produce or working in the fields.

After some time, two young girls and a boy were seen coming from the jungle. When asked, the boy Surju (changed name) quietly mentioned that he had visited the encounter site in the morning, around 3km down the hill in the forest.

Surju also showed the spot where helicopters had landed to evacuate a wounded District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawan.

“The security forces used smoke signals by burning leaves and branches to guide the helicopters. I have seen the helicopters coming down,” the boy said.

Another villager, Gora (changed name), a resident of Gewada, was grazing his cattle in the forest near the encounter site. “I heard gunshots all day. It started around 10am and ended around 8 pm,” Gora said.

The encounter site was littered with signs of the intense struggle, with crushed bushes, pools of blood, and a tuft of hair, possibly from a female Maoist. Many items belonging to the Maoists had been gathered and burned by the security forces.

Two more hills away, there was another encounter site which suggests that the Maoists were trying to flee from that side but were intercepted by security forces.

“The Maoists frequently passed through our village and neighboring forest. The senior leader Niti, who was killed in the encounter, had held a meeting in the village just two days before the clash,” Gora said.

“I think security forces from Dantewada had chased the Maoists from Thulthuli, driving them towards Narayanpur, where another team had surrounded them near Gawadi. The entire area was tightly cordoned off by security forces, making escape impossible for the insurgents,” said another villager who did not wish to be named.

He said the 31 Maoists killed in the encounter had no villagers among them.

“No villagers got killed in the encounter... Sab sangathan ke log thay (all were Maoist cadres),” the villager added.

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