Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday hailed a major breakthrough in the ongoing fight against Naxalism, announcing that two senior Maoist leaders were neutralised in a joint operation by security forces along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.

The encounter took place in the dense forests of the Abujhmad region of Narayanpur district, where two Central Committee members of the banned CPI (Maoist), Katta Ramachandra Reddy and Kadri Satyanarayan Reddy, were killed, reported news agency PTI.