Amid continued secrecy over the Karegutta Hills operation, security forces in Bastar on Monday announced that 31 Maoists have been killed in the ‘recent’ encounters in Bijapur.The Karegutta Hills range is in Bijapur district, along the Telangana border, where a ‘decisive operation’ involving 24,000 troops is on since April 21. Monday’s police statement doesn’t specify exactly when and where these ‘recent encounters’ happened.
However, it’s apparent that these gunfights were spread over several days as 11 bodies have been handed over to their families.
The Bijapur police statement on Monday said, “In the recent police-Maoist encounter in the border region of Bijapur, the bodies of 20 Maoists recovered so far have been identified.