A senior police officer said a Woman Naxal was killed in a gunfight with security troops within a jungle in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on Friday. According to him, the encounter location yielded three guns and a large stockpile of Maoist camping supplies.

According to Inspector General of Police (Bastar region) Sundarraj P., the shootout occurred about 8 a.m. in the forest of Chandameta-Pyarbhat villages while combined security personnel were out on an anti-Naxal operation.

The operation was launched based on the inputs about the presence of some members belonging to Maoists’ Darbha division, which has been instrumental in carrying out several deadly attacks in Bastar, along the borders of Bastar and Surkma districts, around 350 km away from capital Raipur, he said.

Personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG) units from Bastar, Dantewada and Sukma and CRPF 80th battalion were involved in the operation, he added. The exchange of fire took place between the DRG team of Bastar and the Naxals.

After the exchange of fire stopped, the body of a woman Naxal clad in ”uniform” along with one AK-47 rifle, two pistols and a huge amount of camping materials were recovered from the spot, he said. The identity of the killed cadre was yet to be ascertained, the IG said, adding that a search is still underway in the nearby areas.