Bijapur, Jan. 3 -- At least 14 Naxals have been killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Chhattisgarh here on Saturday, an official said.

During an anti-Naxal operation in the Bastar range, security forces recovered the bodies of 14 Maoists. Of these, two were from Bijapur district and 12 from Sukma district.

The search operation was launched after concrete intelligence about the presence of armed Maoists in the southern parts of Bastar. Teams of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) were deployed in the region. Intermittent encounters between the DRG and Maoists have been ongoing since around 5:00 AM in Bijapur and 8:00 AM in Sukma.

A large cache of weapons was recovered from the encounter sites, including AK-47s, INSAS ri...