RAIPUR: Amongst the three Naxals killed in the airstrike at the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border on Wednesday, a top Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, 42. Though the police are yet to confirm his death, the office of IG of Police, Chhattisgarh Sector, released a communique saying CRPF’s Cobra Battalion personnel were undertaking operations against the militants.
Hidma was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), he was also known to be an expert in guerrilla operations. He joined the Maoist organization in 1996. A reward of Rs 45 lakh was declared on him moreover, he was a suspect in many other attacks against forces in the Bijapur and Sukma areas.
The CRPF in coalition with the CoBRA launched an anti-maoist operation on Wednesday which continued for a long time.
“A CRPF CoBRA team was being sent on a chopper to a forward operating base that is located along the Bijapur and Sukma districts of Chhattisgarh abutting the Telangana border. An exchange of fire took place between the commandos and Naxalites when they were alighting from the helicopter. The Naxalites had to flee,” the CRPF (Raipur sector) said in a statement issued late evening in state capital Raipur.