Three Maoists killed in Bijapur encounter

Security forces on Saturday killed three Naxalites, one of them carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh, in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, police sources said.

It was the first encounter in the state after Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to the Naxalites to lay down arms and join the mainstream last week.

A gunfight broke out on a forested hill in the Indravati National Park area around 9 am on Saturday, when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Sundarraj P, IG, Bastar Range, said.

One of the three slain Maoists was Anil Punem, an area committee member who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head. Punem was allegedly the mastermind of the blast carried out by the Maoists near Ambeli village in Bijapur in January, Sundarraj said.

India