At least 14 Maoists, including a woman, were killed in an exchange of fire with security personnel in Saliakota forest near Padia in Orissa’s Malkangiri district, nearly 750 km from here, late on Friday night, the police said on Saturday.
The breakthrough came after a joint team of the special operation group of the state police and district voluntary force, acting on specific intelligence inputs, raided the Maoist camp after midnight. A huge haul of explosives, arms and ammunitions, including AK-47 and SLRs, were seized from the encounter site. According to Orissa director-general of police Prakash Mishra, SOG and DVF personnel, led by Malkangiri district superintendent of police Akhile-swar Singh, raided the rebels when they were hol-ding a meeting in the camp. As the rebels opened fire on the advancing security personnel, the latter retaliated, ensuing in a fierce gunbattle. “Acting on specific intelligence inputs, a joint team of SOG and DVF raided the hideout of the rebels and killed 14 on the spot.