Nagpur, Mar 29 (IANS): At least five Maoists, including two women were gunned down after two encounters with the security forces in the deep forests of Khobramendha in Gadchiroli, officials said here on Monday.

The first encounter took place when the Gadchiroli Police's C-60 Commandos team was engaged in a search and combing operation on Saturday morning, culminating in a fierce exchange of fire with around 50-60 extremists hiding in the jungles at various locations.

In that gun-battle, the firing continued for over an hour after which the Maoists retreated and escaped into the forest that morning.

Later, the police scanned the vicinity and recovered 3 pressure cooker bombs, 303 rifle magazines, live cartridges, electric wires bundles, fire-cracker bombs, solar plats, medicines and other material, DIGP Sandip Patil told mediapersons today.

After 48 hours lapsed this morning, when a new team of commandos resumed the jungle search operations based on intel-info around 7.30 am, they encountered a group of around 25 Maoists who opened indiscriminate firing in their diretion.

In the retaliatory firing during this second encounter, the C-60 commandos managed to gun down five Maoists including two women, and a search is on to trace out if there were more victims and terror material stashed in the vicinity, Patil said.

Efforts are underway to identify the slain victims, which groups or dalams they belonged to, their ranks, and other details even as the forces remain on high alert as the Holi festival is being celebrated on Monday.