Raipur: Two hardcore Maoists, carrying a cumulative bounty of Rs seven lakhs, were on Thursday gunned down in the ongoing encounter with security forces in a jungle in Bijapur district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh, police said. Search operation is still going on in the area”, Bijapur district superintendent of police Dr Jitendra Kumar Yadav said. Intermittent exchanges of fire have still been going on at the encounter site till the last reports came, police said. The slain Maoists have been identified as Pradeep alias Joga, member of Pamed Area Committee, and Bheema Beko, party member belonging to the committee. The Pamed area committee of Maoists, functioning in the southern part of Bijapur district, is considered a formidable unit of Naxals.