Sixteen Naxals, including two women, were arrested from Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Sunday, five of whom have been suspected to be involved in a deadly attack on a CRPF team last year, killing 25 CRPF personnel, police said on Monday.

The arrests were made by a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF), the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the district police, from a hill near Minpa village under the Chintagufa police station limits, said a senior police official.

The security forces have intensified patrolling in the interior forests of the Naxal-hit districts, in view of Assembly polls in the state next month.

The patrolling is aimed at apprehending the lower-rung cadres, who are instrumental in planting explosives to target the police personnel and putting up Maoist posters and banners, he said.

The cadres who have been arrested were active members of either some militia groups, or the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Majdoor Sangthan (DAKMS), a front organisation of Maoists, he said.

Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases, on November 12 and November 20.

The counting of votes will be done on December 11.

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