Four Maoists were killed in a fierce gun-battle with the security forces in Bihar on Wednesday. Of the four killed, two are said to be zonal commanders, giving sleepless nights to the cops for long. The encounter took place in Gurpa forests in Gaya, one of the many districts notorious for Naxal activities.

Acting on a tip-off that a group of Maoists had gathered in the forest and are planning for major operation, a team of security forces from the elite COBRA battalion was rushed to the spot last night.

On getting them surrounded by the forces, the rebels opened fire on them, leading to fierce gun-battle between them in the dead of night. Eventually, they backtracked unable to give proper challenge to the COBRA battalion, a specialized unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of India proficient in guerilla tactics and jungle warfare.

A subsequent search operation in the areas by the forest today found four bodies of the Maoists in the forests with their arms lying close to them. Police believe more rebels may have been killed in the encounter on the basis of trail of bloods.

“When we launched the operation in the forest, the hiding rebels started firing on us, leading to fierce encounter. In the end, we recovered four bodies from the spot,” a senior COBRA official Devesh Mishra told newsmen today.

Two of the four rebels killed in the encounter have been identified so far. They include Anil alias Deepak and Rajesh Ravidas. Anil was working as zonal commander of the Magadh Range whereas Ravidas was the sub-zonal commander, police claim.

This is the first major achievement of the police since they lost 10 colleagues in a deadly Maoist attacks in Aurangabad district in July last. The cops got killed after being booby-trapped by the Maoists who invited them telling about the presence of large number of rebels in the forest.

Finally when the unsuspecting cops entered the areas, the rebels began triggering the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid underneath, leaving at least 10 of them dead on the spot. Cops had no time to retaliate. As per reports, around 17 IEDs were triggered by the rebels.