Top Naxal commander of the area, Shankar Rao, was among the 29 Naxals killed in the encounter.
The gun battle started at around 2 pm. The incident took place under the jurisdiction of Chhotebetia police station. A joint operation was launched by the District Reserve Guards (DRG) and the Border Security Force (BSF) after the resent of Naxals in the forest area.
Earlier, the BSF had recovered 18 bodies. “An encounter broke out between security forces and security personnel. So far, 18 bodies of Naxals have been recovered from an encounter site in Chhotebethiya of Kanker. A large number of weapons have been recovered. Three jawans have been injured. A search operation is underway.” Inspector search operation is underway,” Inspector General of Police (Bastar) PP Sundarraj said.