Raipur:
Eight Naxalites were on Friday killed by security forces and nine captured after a gun battle during a raid on the ultra's training camp in Bande forest area of Kanker district, police said.
"Eight Maoists were killed in a fierce encounter with joint team of the district police force and the Special Task Force in the deeply forested region under Bande police station area," Kanker's Superintendent of Police Rahul Bhagat said.
"The body of one Maoist was recovered, while bodies of seven others must have been carried away by their colleagues," he said, adding that nine guerrillas, including four in uniform, were arrested after a prolonged encounter.
The police patrol which was on a combing operation since two days reached the area between Konge and Tangud villages today, when the insurgents opened indiscriminate firing on them, he said.
When security forces retaliated, eight guerrillas were seen receiving fatal wounds, but seven of them were taken away by their associates, he said, adding that the police suffered no casualties.
In a separate search operation, security personnel recovered explosives and other materials from a dump in
Bimagunda forest area of the district, he said.
"The police found a Maoist camp while cordoning off the forest area near Bimaguda village, but the rebels had already left the place," he said.
Explosives, uniforms and other materials they left behind were recovered from the place, he said.