At least three Maoists were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar region on Saturday, sources in the Union home ministry said.

Two Maoists were gunned down in Bijapur district, while another was killed in the neighbouring Sukma district. The deceased are yet to be identified.

A ministry official said the encounters were still underway in the forested areas of the two districts.

In Bijapur, the gunfight started in the wee hours of Saturday inside a forest near Jappemarka and Kamkanar villages where a team of District Reserve Guard was out on an anti-Maoist operation. Later the DRG team recovered the bodies of two Maoists along with weapons, a wireless set, bags, Maoist uniforms, medicines and materials of daily use from the spot, sources said.

In another encounter, a Maoist was killed by the security forces on a forested hill near Belpochcha village in Sukma district.

Sources said the security forces had launched the anti-Maoist operation there late on Friday night based on inputs about the presence of the rebels in the forests of Belpochcha, Jinetong and Uskawaya villages following
a bandh called by them on May 26 in the Bastar region to protest the alleged fake
encounters.

With this incident, 116 Maoists have been killed so far this year in separate encounters in the state.

On Thursday, seven Maoists were killed in an encounter on the Narayanpur-Bijapur inter-district border.

On May 10, 12 Maoists were killed in an encounter in Bijapur, while 10 Maoists, including three women, were gunned down in a forest along the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts on April 30.