Raipur, Apr 24 (PTI) Three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border on Thursday, police said.

The gunfight took place at a forest in Karegutta hills in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district along the inter-state border in the morning when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxal operation, a senior police official said.

So far, bodies of three Naxalites have been recovered from the encounter site, and several other Maoists are also suspected to have been killed in the fierce gun battle, he said.

The operation, one of biggest counter-insurgency actions launched in Bastar region, involved around 10,000 security personnel belonging to different units, including the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), all units of the state police, as well as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA), he said.

The Telangana police were also assisting in the operation, the official said.

The operation was launched on Monday based on inputs about the presence of senior cadres of battalion no. 1, the strongest military formation of Maoists, and Telangana state committee of Maoists, and it will last for several days, he said.

The area surrounded by the dense forests and series of hills is considered to be the base of Maoists’ battalion no. 1, he added. PTI TKP GK