Bijapur encounter: Of 31 Maoists killed, 28 identified had ₹1.10 crore reward
RAIPUR: As many as 28 of the 31 suspected Maoists killed in an encounter in Bijapur on February 9 have been identified, the Chhattisgarh police said on Friday, adding that 17 among them were men and the rest women.
The 28 identified Maoists including the alleged mastermind behind the January 6 IED blast that killed eight security personnel and a civilian had a combined bounty of ₹1.10 crore on their heads, a police officer said.
Among those killed was Hunga Karma, the secretary of the west Bastar division of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), who had a ₹8 lakh bounty on his head, said Sundarraj P, the inspector general (IG) of police for the Bastar Range.
Karma, also known as Sonku, was allegedly responsible for the January 6 attack and was also behind the 2006 Murkinar camp attack that killed 11 police personnel, and the 2007 Ranibodli camp attack, which claimed the lives of 55 security personnel, the IG said.
Karma reportedly joined the outlawed outfit in 1996. “He had eight Naxal-related offences registered against him in various police stations of the Bijapur district, including attacks on police teams and camps, kidnappings, and murders,” the IG said.
Of the 31 Maoists killed, 28 bodies have been handed over to their families, while efforts are underway to identify the remaining three, the IG added.
This year, 81 Maoists have been neutralised in the state, with 65 of them killed in the Bastar division, which includes Bijapur and six other districts. In various encounters in the Bastar region this year, security forces have recovered 77 firearms, including two AK-47 rifles, five Self-Loading Rifles (SLR), two INSAS rifles, and three .303 rifles, the IG said.
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