One Naxalite was killed and three others were arrested following an encounter between the state police and the ultras in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district. (Representative image by Reuters)

One Naxalite was killed and three others were arrested following an encounter between the state police and the ultras in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district. With this casualty, law enforcement agencies have managed to gun down 110 Naxals in 2016. One locally made rifle was recovered. This came days after 24 Maoists, including some top leaders, were gunned down in a fierce gun-battle with security forces in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on the border with Andhra Pradesh on October 24. The toll in the Malkangiri encounter on Wednesday mounted to 28 after four more bodies were recovered from the forest, away from the Maoists camp at Bejingi, a top home department official has said.

“We have found four more bodies. The total number of Maoists killed in the encounter is now 28,” said Odisha’s Home Secretary Asit Tripathy. Stating that some of the slain Maoists were member of the RK Group, Tripathy said 18 of the 28 bodies have so far been identified.

Earlier, Home Ministry officials had said security forces have achieved greater success in tackling Left Wing Extremism in recent times and there was 30 per cent decline in violence perpetrated by Maoists this year. Altogether, 76 Maoist cadres were killed between January and April this year in comparison to 15 killed in the corresponding period of 2015. As many as 665 Maoists were arrested and 639 surrendered in the first four months of 2016 whereas 435 Naxals were arrested and 134 surrendered in the corresponding period of 2015, a Home Ministry official had said.

In 2015, 226 people died in 1,088 incidents of violence perpetrated by the rebels. Of the 226 deaths, 168 were civilians and 58 security personnel. As many as 89 Maoists were also killed and 1,668 were arrested and 570 cadres surrendered before authorities last year. In 2015, as compared to 2013, there has been 42 per cent decrease in the resultant deaths (civilians and security forces).