A joint team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) killed nine Maoists during an ongoing encounter in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.  

The operation was launched based on intelligence inputs that indicated the presence of Maoists in the area. 

According to police, the encounter began at around 10:30 am and is still underway. “So far, nine Maoists have been killed, and a large quantity of weapons, including a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), a .303 Rifle, and a .315 Bore Rifle, have been recovered from the spot,” a police statement said. 

"All the jawans involved in the operation are safe. The search operation is still underway, and further details will be shared after the operation is complete," it added. 

As many as 147 Maoists were killed in 104 gunfights from December 2023 to August while 723 were arrested and 622 surrendered, according to the government data. 

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The Union government has accelerated the opening of forward operating bases (FOBs) in the Maoists’ strongholds for coordinated intelligence-based operations as well as for assisting civic authorities to undertake development work to the remote villages. 

Thirty three FOBs have been set up since December last year. They include four in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, eight in Bijapur, two in Dantewada, four in Narayanpur, one each in Kanker and Rajnandgaon. 

The government in August told the Parliament that the geographical spread of Maoist violence has reduced from 126 districts across 10 states in 2013 to 38 districts in 2024 across nine states. It said incidents of Maoist violence have reduced by 73% since 2010.