Sukma, Dec 18: Three Naxalites, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Thursday, police officials said.

The gunfight erupted in the morning on a forest in the Golapalli police station area when a District Reserve Guard (DRG) team launched a search operation following intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoist cadres, said police.

The bodies of three Naxalites have been recovered from the site so far and that the operation is still in progress.

With this incident, the total number of Naxalites killed in encounters in Chhattisgarh this year has risen to 284. Of these, 255 were neutralised in the Bastar division—covering seven districts including Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada—while 27 were killed in Gariaband district of the Raipur division. Two others were gunned down in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district in the Durg division.