Ten Maoists, including three women, were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar on Tuesday.

This is the second major encounter at the site where 29 Maoists were gunned down earlier this month.

Sources said the gunfight took place around 6am in Abujhmad on the inter-district border of Kanker and Narayanpur. A joint team of the District Reserve Guards and the Special Task Force launched the operation on Monday night in the jungle near Tekmeta and Kakur villages based on inputs about the presence of armed Maoists.

After the encounter, the security forces launched a search operation and recovered the bodies of 10 Maoists. They also found an AK-47 assault rifle, weapons, ammunition and explosives. The identities of the slain Maoists are yet to be ascertained.

Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister and home minister Vijay Sharma termed the latest operation a major success and appealed to the rebels to come forward for talks and shun the path of violence.

On April 16, as many as 29 Maoists were killed in an encounter in the same area. Among the deceased were senior Maoist leaders Shankar Rao and Lalita Meravi who carried a reward of ₹8 lakh on their heads.

A security official attached to the Union home ministry said as many as 91 Maoists had been killed so far this year in separate encounters in the Bastar region comprising seven districts, including Narayanpur and Kanker.

Abujhmad forest, spread over 3,900sqkm in south Chhattisgarh, is part of the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency and has become inaccessible to the security forces, he said. Intelligence reports suggest the rebels control the forested area and have set up camps to provide arms training to recruits. In the absence of the administration and basic infrastructure, the security forces find it difficult to enter the jungle.

“Abujhmad is the Maoists’ hotbed. They have set up several training camps inside and hold regular meetings with their cadres in the presence of the top-rung leaders and also plan and execute attacks on the security forces. They have also put up a large number of landmines and explosives at all entry points and it has made the task of security forces very difficult,” the official quoting from the intelligence report said.