Gadchiroli, Jul 18 (IANS): The encounter of Gadchiroli Police with Maoists in the thick jungles of the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border in which 12 ultras were killed ranks among the biggest of its kind in seven years in the state, officials said here on Thursday.

Prior to this, it was on April 22-23, 2018 when the combined security forces had carried out a bloodbath in the Gadchiroli jungles by killing more than 40 Reds.

They included four commanders and several other dreaded rebels carrying bounties of varying amounts on their heads, in the twin encounters executed by the Anti-Naxal Operation (ANO) and CRPF commandos.

The April 2018 gun battle with Maoists, who suffered massive fatalities and losses, remains the biggest in the records of the state anti-insurgency operations in the affected districts of eastern Maharashtra.

Later, on May 21, 2021, the security forces shot dead 13 Reds lurking in the Pyadi-Kotmi jungles in the Etapalli region in a pre-dawn swoop followed by huge cross-firing on a Maoist camp.

On October 11, 2021, another encounter took place in the Kosmi-Kisnela forests of Dhanora region on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, in which five Maoists were shot dead.

In March 2020, the security forces carried out a successful Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) against the Maoists on the district borders and busted a secret arms manufacturing unit in the jungles.