india

Updated: Jun 28, 2019 22:09 IST

Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel died in an encounter with Maoist guerrillas that also killed a girl who was caught in the crossfire in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Friday, the police said.

The gunbattle near Keshkutul village took place when a joint team of the CRPF’s 199th battalion and state police was out on an area domination patrol on motorcycles, according to deputy inspector general (DIG), anti- Naxal operations, Sunderaj P.

Two girls were caught in the crossfire. One of them, Jibbi Telam (14) died, while another girl, Renki Hemla (14), was injured, police said.

While two CRPF men were killed on the spot in the encounter, a third died later of injuries he suffered in the shootout. The slain CRPF personnel were identified as assistant sub-inspectors Mahadeva P (50) and Madan Pal Singh (52) and head constable Saju OP (47), officials said.

Mahadeva hailed from Gulbarga in Karnataka, Singh from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and Saju from Idukki in Kerala.

Reinforcements have been sent to the site and the injured — one CRPF trooper and two girls — were admitted to a hospital in Bhairamgarh, the DIG said. The CRPF trooper and one girl died in hospital within an hour.

During a search of the encounter site, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered, he added.

According to Chhattisgarh police records, between January 1 and June 15, 52 encounters took place in which 12 security personnel died. In 2018, 52 security personnel were killed in encounters with Maoist rebels.