The gun battle broke out around 5 am in a forest in the southern region of the district when a team from the District Reserve Guard, a unit of the Chhattisgarh police, was out on an anti-Naxalite operation based on information about the presence of Maoist cadres in the area, an official said.
Bodies of two Naxalites were recovered from the scene, he said.
The intermittent exchange of fire was still underway, and further details were awaited, the official said.
As many as 285 Naxalites were gunned down in separate encounters with security forces in Chhattisgarh last year.
Of them, 257 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur, while 27 others were gunned down in Gariaband district, which falls in the Raipur division.
