Three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Sunday, a senior police official said.
The gun battle broke out in the forest of Ravas along the border of Kanker and Gariaband districts, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxal operation in the morning, the official said.
Personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a unit of state police, from Kanker and Gariaband were involved in the operation, he said.
The official said that an intermittent exchange of fire is still underway.
Bodies of three Naxalites along with three weapons have been recovered from the encounter site so far, he said, adding that further details were awaited.
Area committee members of the Maoists are among the killed cadres, he said.
With the latest action, 252 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 223 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Kanker, while 27 were killed in Gariaband, which falls in the Raipur division.
Two other Naxalites were killed in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district in Durg division.
On September 22, two top cadres, Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67), both Central Committee members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists), were killed in an encounter in Narayanpur district, police said.
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