They were gunned down in an encounterwith the Hawk Force. (Representational)

Two wanted Maoists, including a woman, were gunned down in an encounter on Tuesday night in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

Nande, the woman Maoist, and Mangesh were carrying reward of Rs 8 lakh. Both of them were from Chhattisgarh and they were members of CPI (Maoists) Tanda Dalam. They were gunned down in an encounter with the Hawk Force, the special anti-Maoist force of state police.

"There was a brief encounter between the special force-district police team and the 10-12 Maoists operating in the dense forests of Lanji. While two of the armed Maoists were killed in the exchange of fire, remaining members of the armed rebels managed to escape due to heavy rain and darkness in the dense Pujaritola jungles under Lanji police station area," Balaghat Superintendent of Police Abhishek Tiwari said.

The police fired more than 50 rounds. A self loading and 315 bore rifle have been recovered near the bodies.

Balaghat and Mandla are the two districts in Madhya Pradesh which are affected due to presence of Maoists but Vistar Platoon-2 and 3 are the two platoons of the CPI(Maoists) Kavardha-Balaghat (KB Division) working to establish a left-wing extremist corridor between Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.