The police have recovered two AK47s, two SLR guns, one .303 rifle, five 8 mm bolt action and six 12 bore guns from the spot. (Representational)
Gadchiroli police will search for more bodies, if any, of Maoists who might have been killed in Sunday’s encounter in which 16 ultras were confirmed dead. Some ultras injured in the shootout are suspected to have been swept away by the Indravati river.
“We have reports that some Naxals may have jumped into Indravati river after being injured. Some people say they have seen bodies floating in the river. We will verify the report,” SP Abhinav Deshmukh told The Indian Express. The C-60 commandos of Gadchiroli police had surrounded a group of Naxals near Kasnasur village around 10 am, and swooped down on them.
Bodies of 16 Naxalites were recovered from the spot. It is now gathered that there were about 35-40 Naxals of Perimili Dalam, Aheri Dalam and Platoon 7. “They were camping on an island-like place in the river when our men caught up with them,” Deshmukh said.
The Maoists stuffed major casualties mainly due to lobbing of grenades by the commandos using under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL). Deshmukh confirmed use of UBGL by the commandos but couldn’t give an exact number of shells fired.
He also didn’t have ready information about the number of rounds fired by his men.
What has come to fore is that there was a wedding in the village and the Maoists had arrived to participate in the ceremony.
“We are told that there was a wedding in the village but we don’t know if the Maoists had attended the event. When our men encountered them, they were on that island,” Deshmukh said.
The police have recovered two AK47s, two SLR guns, one .303 rifle, five 8 mm bolt action and six 12 bore guns from the spot. Eleven of the deceased have been identified. They include three women and eight men. A total of seven women, not three as earlier reported, have died in the encounter.
While divisional committee members Sainath and Srinu and a woman cadre Akhila were identified on Sunday, eight others were identified on Monday. Among the identified bodies were Rajesh Navade (age unspecified), Suman Koreti, 18, Shantabai Pada, 31, Nagesh Narote, 32, Tirupati Pungati, 24, Shrikant Narote, 23, Raju Veladi, 29, Sunno Gawde, 44 and Anita Madavi, 24. Shantabai Pada was Aheri Dalam commander. Those eliminated on Sunday included three top cadres.