2 dreaded Red commanders, both women, gunned down

NAGPUR: Day after Maoist call for truce, five C-60 commando teams and a CRPF battalion cordoned off a guerrilla hideout in the dense Modaske forests in Gadchiroli 's Etapalli tehsil and shot dead two dreaded women commanders, who carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 14 lakh, reports Soumitra Bose.

The high-stakes jungle encounter slashed Maoist ranks in Gadchiroli, once a stronghold of the Left-wing insurgents in Maharashtra, to a skeletal 23 members, officials confirmed. This was the fifth encounter this year in the booby-trapped forest, where even intelligence gathering was once deemed suicidal.

The dawn raid, following a credible tip-off on a sabotage plot by Maoists, unfolded like a jungle warfare script in torrential rain. C-60 commando teams from Pranhita headquarters, bolstered by Gatta (Jambiya) police post and CRPF's 191 battalion, swiftly sealed the jungle perimeter. The operation was led by Aheri additional SP Satya Sai Karthik.

The operation continued for at least eight hours and when the gunfire ebbed, bodies of two elite women Maoists were recovered along with an AK-47 rifle, a pistol, 37 live rounds, two walkie-talkies and sundry insurgent gear. One of the slain guerrillas was identified as Sumitra alias Sunita Veladi, 38, from Madvei village.