Barse Deva was a close associate of Madvi Hidma, the rebel top gun killed in Andhra Pradesh recently. Over the past two years, over 518 Maoists were killed in encounters across the state, mainly in Bastar division.Bastar IG P Sundarraj the operation was launched following inputs about presence of armed cadres, and of the 14 killed, two were killed in Bijapur and 12 in Sukma. Their bodies were recovered during searches following the operations. Other officials said intermittent exchanges of fire began around 5am in Bijapur. Similar gun battles were reported from Sukma from 8am and these went on for about an hour-and-half.A large cache, including AK-47s, INSAS rifles and SLRs, were found at the two sites, Sundarraj said. “Among the 12 Maoists killed in Sukma was Sachin Mangtu (DVCM) and another cadre, Hitesh, of Konta area committee,” the IG said, adding the two eliminated in Bijapur were also wanted in civilian killings.Sukma SP Kiran Chavan and Bijapur SP Jitendra Yadav were monitoring the situation on the ground as combing and search operations continued to rule out the presence of additional Maoists.Officials claimed all Maoist commanders allegedly involved in the killing of Akash Rao Girepunje, an ASP in Sukma’s Konta, have now been neutralised. Girepunje was killed in June last year. Police said around 200 to 300 armed cadres are now left in Bastar. “They are hiding. The Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh zone of Maoists has been completely wiped out. Maoist presence has also been almost eliminated from North Bastar and the Marh division in Abujhmarh,” Sundarraj said.Police said among the remaining senior Maoist commanders, special zonal committee member Paparao was hiding in the forests of South Bastar along with his associates in separate groups, while central committee member Mishir Besra was believed to be currently in Jharkhand.
