Mumbai: At least 13 Naxals including seven women cadres were killed in an encounter with police in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra early on Friday, officials said.
The slain ultras belonged to Kasunsur Dalam (squad) of the Naxals, police said. The encounter took place on a day the state home minister was visiting the eastern Maharashtra district, over 900 km from Mumbai.
A release by Gadchiroli Police said they had received inputs that Naxals had gathered in the Paidi forest area in Etapalli tehsil for extortion as auctions of Tendu leaves — used for making bidis or leaf cigarettes — were underway, hence a team of C-60 commandos, a special combat force of the district police, was sent to the area.
The encounter took place between 6 am to 7.30 am as about 60 to 70 Naxals opened fire on C-60 commandos and kept firing despite an appeal to them to surrender, it added.
After the Naxals fled into the dense forest, the bodies of six male and seven female cadres were…