Nagpur: In one of the fiercest encounters that erupted in a river, not in the booby-trapped jungles, Maharashtra's 300 C-60 commandos waded through the Indravati and gunned down the Bhamragarh dalam commander and three other guerrillas, including two women rebels on Friday.

The gunfight continued for three hours with commandos in waist-deep water moving fast to lay siege to a dry island patch in the middle of the river, which separates Maharashtra from Chhattisgarh.Besides engaging guerrillas in a bloody riverine battle, the daring operation wiped out one of the oldest armed formations of People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in Gadchiroli district, which had dug in heels for almost four decades.

The operation led by 12 rain-drenched teams of commandos, who were mobilised from Maharashtra's frontier police post of Kawande. While bodies of the dalam commander and three cadres, including two women, were recovered from the site, two other rebels are still missing. Security forces, under additional SP M Ramesh, waited in ambush for 36 hours in pounding rain at night, before surrounding the island in the riverbed where the Bhamragarh dalam guerrillas were camping.

A team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was also present to assist the C-60 commandos.

This siege triggered intermittent firing before bodies of the Maoists were spotted on the ground."We had intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoists near Kawande, where we opened our last post. We launched the operation despite inclement weather at daybreak. It was a strategic success of our team," said SP Gadchiroli, Neelotpal, adding he's still probing the whereabouts of two missing cadres.

A self-loading rifle, two .303 rifles, one Bharmar rifle, and more than 100 rounds of ammunition were seized from the encounter site.With the Bhamragarh dalam wrapped up by security forces in the latest face-off, Maharashtra is now left with around seven members of the Gatta dalam, three of Aheri, and about 15 members of last standing formation of the battle-hardened Company No. 10 in Maharashtra, which is based deep inside Abujmarh.

Commandos are now pushing to decimate Company No. 10.The action came shortly after Maoist general secretary, Basavaraju, was gunned down along with 26 others in their stronghold. The decimation of the Bhamragarh dalam dealt a deadly blow to the Maoist movement in Maharashtra, with the rebel base in Gadchiroli totally cut off from their guerrilla headquarters of Abujmarh. Police sources stated the Bhamragarh dalam members had narrowly escaped a week ago at a location inside Abujmarh from where they abandoned their weapons and fled.Commander Sonnu Masa Pungati, known for his expertise in improvised explosive device (IED), was among those killed, along with Ashok Wadde, who had 17 cases against him, including five murders. Pungati and Wadde were residents of Kawande hamlet, which was once part of the Maoist's liberated corridor. Woman guerrilla Binjyo Hoyami, a Chhattisgarh native, who had five murder cases against her was neutralised along with her comrade Karuna Pandu, alias Mamita, resident of Gadchiroli."We repeatedly appealed to Maoists to give up arms and return to the mainstream. With the loss of public support and military prowess, only 40 cadres are currently left in Maharashtra," said Neelotpal, adding Maharashtra would meet the March 2026 deadline set by the Union home minister. The operation was also monitored by DIG(Naxal range) Ankit Goyal.IG, State Anti-Naxal Operation Cell, Sandip Patil, stated the opening of the last post at Kawande led to the recent success. "Kawande was their last bastion on the side of Bhamragarh on the banks of Indravati. We dismantled their stone memorials and removed IEDs from the area, and ousted the ‘janatana sarkar' to usher peace and development," said IG Patil.