Intel to 9-hr gunbattle: How the Gadchiroli encounter unfolded
A few villagers said they began hearing gunshots in the hillocks of Alondi, which comes under Gadchiroli district, early on Saturday and a fierce gun battle continued till late in the evening
ALONDI (GADCHIROLI): There was an eerie silence on Sunday in the hillocks of Alondi, where 26 Maoists were killed in a nine-hour-long encounter by police, with security personnel scanning the jungles in the hunt for rebels, who fled after the security operation a day earlier.
There were tell-tale signs of the encounter in an area of about 3 sq km, with bloodstains, empty bullet cartridges, bullet marks on trees, belongings of fleeing Maoists and utensils used by the rebels, clearly indicating the ferocity of the operation.
Most of the local villagers were not willing to speak about what happened at the encounter site spread over dense forests around several small hillocks in Mardintola jungles, which fall on the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border and connect Gadchiroli forests with Rajnandgoan district in Chhattisgarh.
A few villagers, however, said they began hearing gunshots early on Saturday and a fierce gun battle continued till late in the evening. Nobody from the villages ventured out as security forces cordoned them off, they said.
From a visit to the encounter site, it appeared that the Maoists were trapped by security forces. The security forces reached the area on Friday night and cordoned off the area, according to a villager, who asked not to be named. “We took advantage of being in the plain area and Maoists trapped on the hills,” said a police officer who participated in the operation.
The police said they had specific intelligence that the Maoists from Chhattisgarh were to hold a special training camp deep inside the jungles and top leadership of the rebels in the area would be there to prepare a strategy.
“We got information that around 100 armed Maoists, including Milind Teltumbde (a CPI- Maoist, central committee member), had gathered there from neighbouring Chhattisgarh on Friday evening for a training camp and to plan a strategy for offence during Naxal week (foundation day of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army on December 2) in the district,” said superintendent of police, Gadchiroli, Ankit Goyal.
Accordingly, under the leadership of additional SP (operation) Somay Munde, an operation was launched by commandos of the Special Operation Squads (C-60) and Special Action Group (SAG), Goyal said. It is learnt that the district police engaged over 300 security forces for the operation with supportive forces.
Goyal said that at about 6 am on Saturday, while the commandos were conducting search operations in Mardintola, 90-100 hidden and armed Maoists started firing indiscriminately. There were about 300 specialised commandoes trained in the difficult terrain who took on the rebels.
“The gun battle between the police and the left-wing extremists continued for approximately nine and a half hours. When the Maoists recognised the mounting police pressure, they fled and the fight ended at around 3.30 pm,” he said.
Later, the police forces recovered 26 dead bodies (20 men and six women) of the rebels. Of them, 16 suspected Maoists have been identified while the identification of the remaining was underway.
The Mardintola jungle was previously one of the safest places for the Maoists to hide as there are dense forest hillocks all around and spotting their camps in these forests is not easy.
The closest Chhattisgarh village from the encounter spot was Hidkatola, which comes under Mohala Tehsil of Rajnandgaon district. The villagers said that the encounter started near Perava hills, around 4km north of Hidkatola village, on Saturday morning. There was an uneasy calm in Hidkatola village.
An octogenarian of Hidkola village, Ghasiaram, said that the Maoists were camping at Pareva hills, which are almost unreachable because of difficult terrain. “I have never seen Maoists but we have heard about their movement in this area … This is the first time we have seen such a big encounter and movement of security forces,” said Ghasiaram.
Villagers of bordering Gadchiroli district said that the encounter lasted from morning to evening. “From morning 6.30 am to around 5 pm, the sounds of bullets and explosions echoed in the hills of the region… No one dared to go to see what was happening,” Ramesh Kunjam, a resident of Alondi village, which comes under Gadchiroli district, said, adding that the encounter spot was around 3km from his village.
Another resident of Alondi, Kamlesh, said that the entire operation was conducted by the Maharashtra police and the bodies were first brought to Kogul police station by Saturday evening.
“The encounter spot was around a three-kilometre radius in the forest and it seems that Maoists were trying to escape towards the north of our village,” Kamlesh said, adding that the security forces have cordoned off the area.
The Maharashtra police said that some of the rebels fled after the encounter and a search was on to find them with the help of the Chhattisgarh police.
“There are three-four villages, one is Pareva and another is Parvidihi, near the border. There is a ridge that separates Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. We have been informed that the hill above the ridge is the place of the encounter. They had informed us, shared the operation plan as well. The police chief of Gadchiroli had also shared all details. We sent our troops...,” said superintendent of police, Rajnandgaon, D Sravan Kumar.
“We are on alert, and conveyed the same to the villagers for inputs on any action by the Maoists punishing villagers in the name of being informants. So, we are tracking all leads,” the SP added.
Bodies of the Maoists were sent to the Gadchiroli civil hospital for postmortem examination. “We have contacted the Teltumbde family to claim the body. Probably his wife, Angela, will come to take it,” said Goyal.
(With inputs from Pradip Maitra in Nagpur)
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