ITBP busts Naxal camp at Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh border

Raipur, January 19: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) successfully busted a Naxal camp on the border of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh after a brief encounter on Friday.

 

Official sources said that the 40th battalion of ITBP and Chhattisgarh Police Chhattisgarh was proceeding towards Bhave area in Lachhna near Tanda river when they came under fire from Naxals around 8 am. The ITBP and the state police jointly retaliated the firing.

The Naxals soon exploded a huge improvised explosive device followed by heavy small arms fire, as the security forces started approaching. Realizing that the forces were dominating the encounter, the Naxals gradually fled from the spot towards Madhya Pradesh (Balaghat) jungles.

 

No casualties have been reported from either side so far. The area was then cordoned off and searched thoroughly.

The Naxal camp was made of five temporary tents. Ration items, water storage tanks, buckets, one laptop with printer have been recovered from the site. The area is still being searched extensively. Jamuna, the local Tanda area Committee member of the CPI Maoist was heading the group of 25-40 Naxals when it was busted by the security forces.

A claymore mine and two pressure cooker IEDs were also recovered from the site. The encounter site is surrounded by the thick jungle terrain and is believed to be a transit route for Naxals crossing over from Chhattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh and vice versa.