An encounter took place between Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and suspected Naxals in Pankhajur area in the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, barely weeks after Maoists killed 25 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Sukma district of the state.
The encounter took place in the same area — Pankhajur in the Kanker district — where Naxalites had killed two BSF jawans and injured four others in an attack in March this year.
Thursday's encounter is believed to have begun at 7 am, when a BSF personnel from the 171st Battalion were ambushed by Naxals. News agencies say the BSF jawans were part of a road security operation under the Bande police station jurisdiction in the Kanker district at the time. There has been no report of any casualty yet.
The BSF personnel were reportedly providing security to the construction of the Bande-Irpanaar road — which stretches over 36 km — when they came under fire from the Maoists. They retaliated in kind. The Maoists then retreated back into the forest. The BSF party then combed the area where the Maoists were holed up, and cleared it.
There was no casualty reported on the BSF side. Casualties on the Naxal side are indeterminate because they are known to whisk away their injured and deceased.
