The bodies of three more Maoists were recovered on Saturday morning in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, where a fierce encounter with security personnel took place a day ago, the police said.
With this, the number of Maoists killed in the gun battle with the security personnel on Friday has risen to 31, they said, adding that a search operation is still underway in the area.
"Bodies of three more Maoists were recovered this morning from the dense forest where the encounter took place on Friday," inspector general of police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said.
"With this, the toll of Maoists in the encounter rose to 31. The identity of the Maoists is yet to be ascertained, but prima facie it appears that they belonged to PLGA (People's Liberation Guerilla Army) company No. 6, Platoon 16 of Maoists and east Bastar division of Maoists," he said.
On Friday, the gunfight broke out between security forces and Maoists around 1 am in a forest between Nendur and Thulthuli villages on Dantewada and Narayanpur inter-district border, where a joint team of District Reserve Guard and Special Task Force was out on an anti-Maoist operation. -- PTI