At least three Maoists were killed in Chhattisgarh on Thursday as the security forces launched a massive offensive, aided by drones, in retaliation to Monday’s massacre of eight police commandos and their driver.

Intermittent exchanges of fire were continuing in the night at the site in Sukma district and further details were awaited, a CRPF officer said.

He said the operation had been planned following intelligence about the presence of around 15-20 Maoists, including some senior leaders, at the spot.

“Security forces surrounded the Maoists across a radius of 7-8km. As they closed in, the Maoists opened fire, resulting in a fierce gun battle that is still continuing,” the CRPF officer said. He added that the deaths of at least three rebels had been confirmed.

Sources in the security establishment said drones or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were being used for reconnaissance and surveillance, with real-time images being taken of the “liberated zone” in Chhattisgarh, to protect troops against getting ambushed in the jungles.

“The UAVs are being used to launch offensives against the Maoists and also to keep an eye on the personnel conducting operations and area-domination exercises in rebel strongholds,” a security official attached to the Union home ministry told
The Telegraph.

Drones have been used in the past, too, to launch anti-Maoist offensives in Chhattisgarh. They were introduced in the state to get an “eye in the sky” following the deadliest-ever massacre of 76 security personnel by the Maoists, in Dantewada in 2010.

Sources said the National Technical Research Operation was remotely watching the operations and guiding the forces, while the drones were being operated from the ground by air force personnel.

They added that Thursday’s operation began in the early hours, and the gun battle broke out in a forest along the border between Sukma and Bijapur, the district where Monday’s ambush took place.

Personnel from the District Reserve Guard — an anti-insurgency unit of the state police that lost eight men in Monday’s ambush — were participating in the operation along with a special task force and the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), an elite CRPF unit.

On Monday, the Maoists had blown up the DRG commandos’ Scorpio at Kutru in Bijapur district, part of the rebels’ stronghold of Bastar in southern Chhattisgarh. The troops were returning from an operation during which they had killed four rebels and lost a comrade.

Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker, Sukma, Dantewada and Kondagaon are the seven districts affected the worst by the Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh.

The dense Abujhmad forest, spread over 3,900sqkm in southern Chhattisgarh, is part of the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. Intelligence reports suggest the rebels are in complete control of the extensively booby-trapped forests, where they have multiple camps providing arms training to recruits.

One of the forces’ biggest successes against the Maoists came last October when 31 Maoists were killed in an encounter inside Abujhmad, which the troops normally find difficult even to enter.

“But it’s still a big challenge as the rebels have total control inside the jungle,” a Union home ministry official said.

“That’s why UAVs are being used for reconnaissance and for taking real-time imagery of the ‘liberated zone’. The Maoists won’t be safe for long inside the Abujhmad forest, which has been their lair.”