Gaya (Bihar), Mar 16 (IANS): Four Maoists, including a zonal commander and three sub-zonal commanders, were killed in Bihar's Gaya district on Tuesday in a gun battle with security forces.

The gun battle began in the morning when the 205 CoBRA unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) along with a local unit of the paramilitary wing and state police force carried out an operation in Maunbar area under the Dumaria police station in Gaya district.

It was one of the 13 operations being conducted by the CRPF across various Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states since Tuesday morning, a CRPF official told IANS requesting anonymity.

Confirming the incident, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Additional SP (Operation), said, "While a search operation was underway, the Maoists opened fire at the CRPF CoBRA battalion. In retaliation, our force also fired at them. The gun battle continued till 4 pm. After that firing from their side stopped," Singh said.

"When we searched the area, four Maoists were found dead. We are cautiously securing the place as the Maoists might have placed landmines in the area. It is considered a successful operation as no causality has been reported from our side," he added.

In a statement, the CRPF said that four bodies, three AK-47 rifles and one Insas rifle were recovered from the spot after the operation ended at around 5.14 p.m.

Amresh Bhakta, zonal commander, along with three sub-zonal commanders identified as Shuvpoojan, Srikant Bhyuin and Uday Paswan, were killed in the operation.

The troopers are yet to return to their base camp. So far there is no report of any injury sustained by the forces. Search operations will be further intensified in the region.

In a similar operation carried out last month, security forces had gunned down a senior Maoist commander in an exchange of fire in the strife-torn Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.