Kanker: Three Maoists, including area committee members, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Sunday. With these deaths, the number of Naxalites killed in the state this year has gone up to 252.

According to the police, a gun battle broke out in the forest of Ravas along the border of Kanker and Gariaband districts, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxal operation in the morning, the official said.

Personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a unit of the state police, from Kanker and Gariaband, were involved in the operation, an official said. He said that an intermittent exchange of fire was underway till the afternoon.

The bodies of the three Maoists, along with three weapons, have been recovered from the encounter site so far. Efforts are underway to identify the dead members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). There are area committee members among the dead, it is being suspected.

Of the 252 Naxalites killed in Chhattisgarh, 223 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Kanker, and 27 in Gariaband that falls in the Raipur division.

Two other Naxalites were killed in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district in the Durg division on September 22. They were identified as central committee members Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67). The Supreme Court has directed the Chhattisgarh government to preserve the body of one of them after hearing a plea alleging a fake encounter.