6 police men, 8 Maoists killed in fresh clash

     Jagdalpur/Raipur, June 27, 2011: Six security personnel and eight Maoists were killed in gun battles in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, police said today.

     “In two separate incidents in south of Chhattisgarh six police personnel and eight Maoists were killed yesterday evening,” Bastar Range Inspector General of Police T J Long Kumer told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com.

     When a police party was on a patrol in the rich iron ore area of Kirandul suspected Maoists triggered a powerful land mine blast to blow up the sports utility vehicle (SUV) of the police, he said.

     In that incident one officer and three police personnel were killed and an equal number of forces were injured, he said.

      Kirandul is a part of the famous Bailadila region, where high grade iron ore is found and exported to countries like Japan, Korea and China and the mining and transportation activities were crippled many times in a year due to attack by the Maoists.

     In a separate incident in Kanker district of the same Bastar region, two security forces were killed and three injured when they were trapped in an ambush laid by the Maoists, the IGP said.

      The incident took place in Sulangi forest of Kanker district, police said.

     Maoists ambushed the police party, when it was on search operation in the Sulangi forest and in the gun battle two security personnel of the Border Security Forces (BSF) were killed where as in the fierce fighting, police claimed, at least eight Maoists were killed.

     “At least eight Maoists were killed in the fierce gun battle, and Police has already recovered one of the bodies,” Long Kumer said

     Combing operation has been launched in both the places to trace the Maoists dead or alive, he said.