Woman Naxal dy commander killed in encounter

Nagpur: A squad of Tadgaon police subpost, with a paltry 20 members, took on the Naxal’s Perimili Local Organizational Squad (LOS) and eliminated their woman deputy commander Sarita Kolu Kowase in the exchange of fire on Tuesday. The incident happened in the forest of Kudkeli at Bandenagar in Bhamragarh tehsil of Gadchiroli. Sarita’s husband Sainath, commander of the Naxal formation, too is learnt to have sustained bullet injuries on the chest before being dragged away by colleagues from the spot.
The latest action highlights the success of the strategy of police post parties, which earlier were mostly restricted to administrative work, taking the Naxals head on. A key success was the body of a senior cadre. The last time a post party had recovered Naxal bodies after encounter was by Potegaon squad in 2011. Earlier this year, police post parties had been successful in recovering explosives after detecting mines and also engaging Naxals on a number of occasions.
Sources said Sarita had been with the Naxals since the last nine years and had 20 offences registered against her.
Superintendent of police, Gadchiroli, Sandip Patil said Tadgaon post party had information regarding the Naxal outfit camping on the banks of Bande river at Bandenagar. The Naxals were preparing a meal when the cops reached the spot. “Our squad had begun conducting searches in the forest to zero down on the Naxals. One of the squads spotted the Naxals and the exchange of fire started,” he said.
Patil said the police squad had spotted a handful of villagers helping the Naxals with ration and other materials. “The police party had to practice restraint in firing to avoid injury to the villagers among the Naxals, or else we would have returned with bigger success,” said the SP.
Apart from the cadre’s body, police also recovered her SLR rifle and 35 bullets. The camp was later stormed by the police party under sub-inspector Pargane. They recovered a number of rucksacks, materials of daily needs, and explosives, wires and detonators.