2 Maharashtra commandos killed in Gadchiroli encounter

Two police commandos were killed while another was injured in a gunbattle with Maoists in the forests of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on Sunday.

The incident occurred near village Tikameda of the violence-affected district located on the border of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

“Two of our commandos have been killed while one is injured. The troops sustained bullet injuries as they were in a planned operation,” said Inspector General (anti-Maoist operations) Ravindra Kadam.

The encounter occurred when the joint security forces, including the special C-60 commandos of state police, were out for an anti-Maoist operation along the border area of the two states. The operations had been on since Sunday morning.

The police suspect two Maoists were also killed.

Maoists kill 3 of family

Three members of a family were abducted and shot dead by Maoists, whom the family had kept at bay for 25 long years, PTI reports from Lohardaga in Jharkhand.

Balksihore Shahdeo, his son Pramod and brother Jai Kishore were kidnapped from Sahebapat village of the district and shot dead on Saturday night near Marayan jungles, said Superintendent of Police Manoj Ratan. The Shahdeo family had fought the Maoists for the past 25 years, he added.

“We have kept them at bay for 25 years,” said Jharkhand Pollution Control Board former chairman Lalbal Mukund Nath Shahdeo, another member of the family.

The Shahdeos had survived four Maoist attacks in the past.

Union Minister of state for Rural Development and Lohardaga MP Sudarshan Bhagat, Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Nilkanth Singh Munda, Lohardaga MLA Kamal Kishore Bhagat and Jharkhand police chief D K Pandey visited the place.