Bijapur, 4 April 2021: On Sunday, 17 more bodies have been recovered after an encounter with Maoists on the border of the Naxal-affected Bijapur and Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. 21 personnel have been missing since the encounter with Naxalites in the Bastar area on Saturday, but today 17 more bodies of security personnel have been found from the encounter site during the search operation. In this way, a total of 22 soldiers have been martyred in the Naxalite attack so far. Five security personnel were martyred yesterday and about 30 injured personnel are hospitalized.

Bijapur SP Kamalochan Kashyap confirmed that the number of jawans killed has reached 22 and out of these 15 bodies have been recovered today and five were found yesterday.

21 jawans have been missing since the encounter with Naxalites on the border of Naxal affected Bijapur and Sukma district of Chhattisgarh and their search is going on.

The police officer had said that the body of a female Naxalite was recovered from the spot by security forces. Naxalites are also reported to have suffered a lot in the encounter.

There was an encounter between the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) battalion of Naxalites and the security forces of Tarrem near Jonaguda village in the Bastar area around noon on Saturday. The encounter lasted for more than three hours. One jawan of Cobra battalion, two jawans of Bastaria battalion and two personnel of DRG (five jawans total) were killed in the encounter. During this time, 30 jawans have been injured. Out of the injured, seven jawans have been admitted to the hospital in Raipur and 23 jawans have been admitted to the hospital in Bijapur.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel expressed grief over the matter and said that the martyrdom of the soldiers will not go in vain. He said that seven injured security personnel who were shifted to Raipur are out of danger.  I got a call from Home Minister Amit Shah. He has sent the Director-General of CRPF to the state.

He further said that there was a 4-hour shootout between the Naxalites and the security personnel. Naxalites have suffered heavy losses.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also expressed condolences to the families of the martyrs and said that the country will never forget their martyrdom.