Maoists injured in Chhattisgarh gunfight

Raipur, April 2 (IANS) Several Maoists were injured in a lengthy gunfight with paramilitary forces in the early morning hours Monday in a remote jungle area in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, police said.

The gunfight broke out past midnight and ended after four hours when armed Maoists opened fire on a Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Bhanupratapur area in Kanker district, some 300 km from state capital Raipur.

"The gunfight went on for about four hours and the jawans at the BSF's 41 battalion camp retaliated strongly. Several Maoists received bullet wounds and their colleagues dragged the bodies deep into the forest,'' sources here at the police headquarters told IANS.

The source added that no BSF personnel were injured in the attack.

Dozens of BSF men have begun search operations in the area in association with the state policemen to hunt down attackers.

Kanker is one of the seven districts of a 40,000 sq km mineral rich Bastar region where Maoists run a parallel government in the interiors since late 1980s.