9 Maoists killed in gun battle near Andhra border

     Jagdalpur/Raipur, April 16, 2013: In a fierce gun battle with elite security forces at least nine Maoists were killed today in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, a top police officer said.

     “At least nine Maoists have been killed in a gun battle with security forces in Sukma forest,” Bastar Range Inspector General of Police Himanshu Gupta told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com.

      Importantly nine bodies have also been recovered by the security forces, Gupta said.

      Eleven sophisticated weapons, including self loading rifles, have also been recovered from the gun battle site, the Police officer said.

     “With the kind of sophisticated weapons recovered from the site of gun battle, it seems some of the senior Maoist leaders are also killed in that incident,” Gupta said.

     The gun battle was started at about 8.30 AM today and the firing from the Maoists side was intermittently continuing for a longer duration.

     Since the elite security forces are still inside the forest, the top police officer refused to give details about the exact location of the fighting.

     Gupta, however, said no one was injured or dead from the security forces side.